Project: Resurrection
by Leasia
Summary: Part 2 Jake and Sherry have been married for about two months, when Sherry and baby Anja are kidnapped seemingly with Ada Wong's assistance, Jake and Leon gear up to take them down. But the enemy wants them on their side or completely destroyed in a race for world domination.
1. Chapter 1 Prologue

Jake woke to the sound of Sherry stirring next to him in the darkness. One arm was thrown casually around her waist but now he tightened his grip on her. He could feel her swollen stomach under his fingers and even a push from the baby girl within. She could give birth anytime but she was not due for a few more weeks.

She gave a low moan and Jake knew immediately that this was not restlessness from the baby. Her arms flew up to protect herself from whatever she was seeing in her dreams. Jake turned her over and murmured a few words into her ear. She quieted and curled into his chest, all without waking up. She was tiny compared to him, her head barely reaching his chin. He put his arm around her now and ran his fingers through her hair until she was breathing easily again.

Her nightmares had returned. Memories from the experiments that she endured in China. Rare but they still happened on occasion. He lay awake for a long time thinking about how their lives had come full circle. He hated Neo-Umbrella or whatever shell company they were using now. He hated his father Albert Wesker, hell he even hated Sherry's father for helping Wesker.

It was ironic now that they were helping to destroy what their parents had created.

He felt bad for Sherry. Sherry as a child loved her parents and had never understood what exactly it was they were creating. But Sherry as an adult understood all too well and had suffered the ramifications of their decisions.

Jake had never had to go through having parents who loved him and yet were creating monsters and using unwilling humans to do it. His father never knew he existed. His mother sacrificed her health for him and died when he was still young. But she had loved him. Jake reasoned this was the best possible outcome for him. Being a megalomaniacal freak show had not kept Wesker alive at any rate.

Realizing he was not going to get any more sleep that night, Jake slid carefully out of bed, being careful not to disturb Sherry. They had been married for the past two months and he loved every second of it. His new job with the Department of Security was helping him use his own particular skill set effectively against B.O.W.s wherever they happened to turn up. It was becoming a disturbingly normal occurrence.

Sherry had been on desk duty for the past two months. Jake knew she hated it. He would never admit it to her or anyone else out loud but he was relieved that she was out of the field for a little while.

He had been partnered with Leon by Hunnigan, Leon's handler. Leon had grumbled and Hunnigan had smiled insisting it was time he trained someone for the job and it might cool his lone wolf tendencies just a bit. Leon was used to and preferred to working alone. But after a few missions and discovering that Jake was just as reckless if not more so than he was, he accepted it readily. There really was no training Jake for the job. Leon figured he would just turn him loose and let him pave a hole through the enemy and go from there.

Jake checked the time.

4am.

He let out a deep sigh and slid back into bed next to Sherry. He would rather be here than anywhere else. His biggest worry right now was wondering what that clone had been doing this whole time. He doubted that the clone would remain in hiding for long, but the absence of activity bothered Jake.

Even Leon was suffering from cabin fever in the office.

He was so deep in thought he suddenly realized his phone was beeping on the side table. He snatched it up glad for the interruption to his thoughts.

"Yeah?" He grunted into the phone.

It was Leon. "A lone J'Avo has been spotted."

Jake tensed for a moment. It was close. Too close to Sherry's due date.

"Come again?"

"Pack a bag, I'm on my way…"

"Claire?"

"I've already called her, she's on her way too. She stayed in the area like she promised. Don't worry, you still have a few weeks left."

Jake groaned inwardly. He and Claire were not best friends. He did not get along with the either of the Redfields for different reasons. At least until recently. He doubted he and Chris Redfield would ever truly be friends but they each had a healthy respect for the other. Chris had seemed genuinely disappointed that Jake did not join the BSAA.

Claire on the other hand seemed to be waiting for him to just drop the ball and start some world domination project like his biological father.

God, he loved disappointing Claire.


	2. Chapter 2 Clones

Jake followed Leon through the hallway, his own gun up. Although he preferred a handgun to carrying around a machine gun of any type, he admitted to himself they had their uses. They were both armed to the teeth. Jake had laughed when Leon had handed him a large combat knife, but Leon had only shaken his head saying a knife had saved him more than once when he'd used all his ammo. The knife was currently occupying a pocket on the front of Jake's vest.

Claire had referred to Leon as a one-man army and Jake had agreed with her. Leon often disobeyed orders about going into a "zone." When told to stand down he often went in anyway at least just to scout around.

At least that is what they were supposed to be doing now. Hunnigan had called him with a possible J'Avo sighting. It was so near the ESR that Leon found it believable. Edonia too was only a stone's throw away.

Now alone in a building with no power they were chasing a lone J'avo. Instead of attacking, the creature had run from them. Leon had dealt with several "inventions" mostly by Neo-Umbrella using biological warfare both to decimate and to create new weapons. In the last few decades they had come out of the shadows and BOWs was a by word in common vernacular. No longer did people argue about whether or not you could have guns. Because "infected" had shown up in so many places the argument was no longer valid.

There was a power struggle somewhere in the upper echelons of the elite, decided Leon. The creation of the BOWs had unseated someone. Or whatever the "family" was doing.

A lone J'Avo though was almost unheard of. When they attacked, it tended to be groups…while they were fully functional in their first forms, any injury causing them harm would mutate them. If you did not take them out with a head shot, they simply grew another arm, leg, body, etc. Jake had seen a J'avo in China that resembled a mutated centaur. The forms made no sense, the mutations were random…and when the creatures died, they collapsed in on themselves.

Jake was glad for the C-Virus immunity he had inherited from his father. Without that he would be just like one of those J'Avo, probably dead by now like the rest of his unit. He suppressed the memory.

No time at the moment. He could think about them later.

Leon checked the door motioned behind him and then as Jake covered him flung the door open. Inside a blonde boy crouched in the corner behind a chair. The J'Avo in front of him sword in hand turned around to attack them but one shot to the head from Jake's gun dropped it forever.

Leon moved forward gun scanning the room.

Jake stared at the blonde boy.

This was supposed to be a clone. He couldn't have been more than 5 years old. He wondered briefly if his father had looked just like this and dismissed the thought as irrelevant. _Not worth thinking about._

Leon scanned the room, other than the dead J'Avo they had just shot, there was not much else here.

Bookshelves lined the wall on one side. The other was strangely smooth with no decoration. A door turning towards the right turned out to be a bathroom. Leon closed it and turned to the smooth wall.

"It's a screen." Jake said immediately. He turned to the boy who sat on the floor clenching his hands and trembling in fear. If this was a younger Wesker clone he certainly did not have the commanding presence of his predecessor. "Isn't it?"

The boy nodded and pinted. "Alice." He whispered. The screen lit up immediately.

"Hello Albert." A female voice answered him, the screen lit up and a girl could be seen standing in front of them. She glanced around the room noticing the visitors. "Passcode?" She asked.

"Passcode?" Leon said looking over at Jake with his eyebrows up.

"If you do not know the passcode," the computerized voice of Alice came from the wall. "You will have to stay until vetted by the proper authorities. I'm afraid I must insist you remain here until you are dealt with." She paused and they heard a metal clang.

Glancing back at the door with their guns up they noticed a metal door was now covering their only exit.

"Well this just got fun." Jake muttered lowering his gun. Leon did the same sparing the boy a glance.

"What does it take to let her know we are not a threat?" Leon said to him.

The boy stared at them. "You're not?" He stuttered at them cringing a little each time they moved. He looked at the dead J'Avo. "Why did you kill him?"

"We thought he would harm you." Said Jake, dropping to his knees to look at the boy at eye level. "Were we wrong?"

"Yes," whispered the boy. "He brought me stuff, food…books… and he cleaned."

Leon and Jake exchanged glances. J'Avo taking care of a child seemed to be stretching it a bit.

"We're sorry about your friend." Leon said awkwardly. The boy only nodded solemnly.

Jake stood back up and backed away. He had come from a war-torn country himself, seen kids affected by war. He was one of them. Something about this kid screamed that he knew more than he was letting on.

"How do we get out then?" Leon asked him.

"Oh," The boy said. "I can give the passcode."

"You can?" Leon looked surprised.

"He is a proper authority." Alice from the wall commented.

Jake shot a concerned look at Leon. He would never have considered himself great with kids but this one was a clone of his father, and seemed to be leading them in a direction he wanted them to go.

"We're not a threat." Leon continued pulling his gun into his pocket. "If you want we can get you out of here, into the real world."

"Outside?" The boy looked surprised. His skin was pale but otherwise he appeared in good health.

"Yes." Leon replied.

Jake stood back observing everything, noting everything. He was naturally suspicious and wondered briefly if this was how Claire saw him. He felt a pang of empathy for Claire, always being suspicious of him. The pang didn't last long. Jake had no intention of destroying the world any time soon. His biggest ambition today was to make it back home in one piece.

The boy nodded and stood, he turned to the waiting Alice and spoke one word. "Uroboros."

Leon froze, and Jake noting his reaction followed suit. "What?" He said quickly. He had learned to read Leon and there wasn't much that startled the man. Monsters or otherwise.

The metal doors slid down and the way was open again.

"Who taught you that word?" Leon asked the boy quickly.

"My father," he answered lowering his eyes. "I haven't seen him for a while. It was my password to make Alice work." He pointed to the waiting girl behind the screen. "She gives me lessons, tells me stories."

"Let's get out of here," Jake said shuddering. He would never admit it out loud but the boy gave him the creeps. That and they could potentially be trapped in this room again. He was anxious to get back to Sherry.

Leon moved to the door. "I think you'll need to come with us…uh…"

"Albert." The boy supplied. "My name is Albert."

Leon and Jake both tensed at the name. They exchanged glances.

 _This keeps getting better and better_ , Jake thought. After a few more exchanges the boy followed Leon out into the hall. Jake glanced around the room again. The girl stared at him from the screen. It was incredible technology. He moved out.

"Jake we got a problem." Leon was standing in the hall.

"What is it?"

"That room is also occupied." Jake looked to the door on his right. Leon had looked in ahead of him when he'd heard a noise. He looked grim and Jake knew he wasn't going to like what he saw. He had a nagging feeling he knew whose face he would see.

"Who?"

Leon only lifted an eyebrow. "Back up is on the way. They radioed in."

This time Jake nodded. He glanced at the door and opened it slowly, gun raised in front of him.

The clone of Albert Wesker turned around and glanced at Jake and Leon coming into the room. The boy had not been the only clone in the building.

Same hair, smile, eyes but something was off. Jake couldn't tell what it was but this time the clone was different. Tense, he wasn't relaxed at all as he had been in their previous encounters. This time he looked concerned. Not careless as if he had everything under control and he knew it.

He backed into the corner raising his hands in front of him as he did so. He was actually trembling in fear.

Leon hesitated behind Jake.

Something was off…

"What's the matter asshole? Losing your nerve?" Jake swore at him. The sudden change in character unnerved Jake more than he was going to admit.

He was dressed in a black suit outfit with no tie. He wore a black jacket over it that hung low to his knees. Everything fit the character of the last clone that they'd met except…

 _He was afraid._

Leon leaned towards Jake and spoke the obvious. "Something isn't right."

"Yeah, no shit," Jake responded. He glanced around for any traps but saw none. Sweat glistened off his neck as he scanned the room.

The lab lights were dim but hid nothing. There was no other way out other than the way they'd come in. Wesker Jr. wasn't going anywhere.

"What do you want?" The clone spoke and Jake stopped in surprise. He acted like he'd never met them before.

"What do you mean what do we want?" He snapped. "You've kidnapped my wife twice, experimented on the both of us, tortured Sherry, and threatened our child. You figure it out yet, you sick fuck?"

"Jake he's a clone." Leon said suddenly.

"Yeah got it thanks," Jake snapped, irritated. He really wanted to kill Wesker and be done with the whole deal.

"He's A clone," Leon said again, "Not THE clone."

Realization dawned in Jake's mind. The uncertainty, the fear, this was a clone of Albert Wesker all right, but he didn't have the memories of Wesker, or Wesker Jr. He glanced over at the younger version of the man everyone hated so much.

"What do you know?" He asked him lowering his gun.

It turned out he didn't know much. He had literally been born yesterday, dressed in these clothes and sent on his way. He was a blank slate…. He didn't even know his name.

Jake had to hand it to him. He was either a super actor or the real deal. He felt pity for him, even as he wanted to smash his face in at the same time. They'd cuffed the clone, loaded him up and taken him away.

"What will happen to him?" He asked one of the BSAA agents in charge.

"I'm not sure," said the agent scratching his chin. "He's not the first clone we've found."

"Not the first….?" Jake stared at the agent in some surprise, but the guy only nodded and moved off.

Jake had a flashback to what the first clone had said. _"There was always a contingency plan where Wesker was concerned."_

Wesker was playing them…but he wasn't just playing them from the grave, but planning on making a comeback from it. It was the only explanation Jake could come up with. Why make so many clones of yourself?

And this wasn't the clone they met, where was he?

Jake wondered if they were already too late.


	3. Chapter 3 The Untimely Birth of Anja

Jake stared around the room they'd just found the boy in. Everything had been disabled, the computer program no longer responding to anyone. It appeared to be simply a smooth wall once more. Jake sighed. Whatever the BSAA techies were hoping to get here he didn't know. Just give him a gun and tell him where to point it. He preferred movement to sitting and watching.

"I don't get it," he said to Leon. "What's with all the clones?"

Leon sighed. "You know I never met the guy but he's a pain the ass. Probably to throw us off, but the problem is, these are real. And unfortunately, they're innocent."

"He making an attempt to come back from the gave?" Jake glanced around the complex. The room was small and furnished with a bed, a small table and a chair, all white. There were books on the bookshelf, mostly science books.

"What would you do with all that knowledge in your head and a god complex?" Leon said staring at the wall again.

Jake could only shrug. He wished Sherry was here but she was currently seeing a doctor. Her pregnancy was due at any moment and Jake was practically dancing on his toes to get back to her and be there when the baby came.

Leon saw the anxiety on the younger man's face. "Go." He said smiling. "I've got this. I'll let you know what we find. If we find anything."

"You sure?" Jake asked, torn. He had been hunting down the clone who had captured and injected him for a while now and wanted to be there when they caught him.

He'd since come to terms with Chris Redfield over the killing of his Father. Hell, there were days when he wished he could have pulled the trigger with as much as his life had been affected by the guy. Now he was helping to put an end to the Wesker legacy.

Jake was pretty sure that this was the definition of irony.

"Yeah I'm sure," said Leon. "I'll call you with what we find out. Go, say hi to Sherry for me."

Jake nodded. They were only a few hours away from Sherry and Claire by plane.

He left just as they bringing the younger clone back. The boy looked up and locked eyes with Jake for a moment and Jake shuddered. This was what his father started off as? The boy did not smile, or make any sort of facial expression… but for a brief moment Jake thought he saw something in the eyes. A flicker of something. Recognition, maybe?

His eyes narrowed and the boy's face turned a little fearful staring at him. Jake wondered if he'd imagined that glance. It had lasted only a second. If at all. He shook his head and turned away.

"Good luck, kid." The boy said nothing and Jake kept walking.

Suddenly he wondered if this was what is was like for Claire. To always be worried that the offspring of Wesker was going to snap. To say Claire didn't trust him was putting it mildly. But they'd come to an understanding for Sherry's sake.

Jake hoped he'd proved himself to Sherry's oldest friend. Leon had vouched for him often enough but he was never sure where he stood with Claire.

His phone buzzing knocked him out of his revelry, it was Claire letting him know Sherry's labor had started. He forgot everything else and raced to the truck.

Sherry:

Sherry sat in her bed after the last contraction resting. They were about ten minutes apart, and quite painful. She had decided to go without painkillers thinking it couldn't be worse than anything she had experienced before and now she was mentally kicking herself. China had been a walk in the part compared to her last contraction.

Finding a doctor had been difficult. Well almost impossible…

Sherry knew she would have never have known about the pregnancy at all until her belly started swelling. There were no other indications, a lack of morning sickness, or exhaustion of any kind which she knew was probably a side effect of the G-Virus. For once a welcome one.

The healing had set her apart. At least until Jake had come along anyway.

It had been her greatest asset, and her greatest bane. They had tested it endlessly while she was still growing up. Sherry was certain that her samples were still in storage somewhere within the American Government, probably also within the care of other groups by now. And now as an agent she could be sent almost anywhere without worry about serious injury. It was one of the reasons she'd gone into Edonia alone in the first place.

But still she was here now, about to have a baby…Jake's baby. The contraction came again, and she gritted her teeth against it. The pressure built and she tried to ride out the wave but gasped in pain as it peaked. She didn't want to wake Claire who had fallen asleep in a chair after calling Jake.

Claire had been sitting with her for hours after Leon and Jake had left. Tracking the clones of Wesker was a big task and Jake had finally been given a job, identity, and a new legitimate life.

They'd even gotten married…

The memory came as the contraction went. Sherry went ahead and thought about that day. It bad been a small ceremony. A magistrate had officiated.

Leon and Claire had stood behind them as witnesses, Chris and Jill had also shown up. They'd had dinner with them and then gone their separate ways on a honeymoon. Jake had shaken Chris's hand then grinning and saying, "he wasn't wasting time either." Sherry never did figure that one out.

Another contraction came, much harder and this time Sherry couldn't conceal the gasp this time.

In the chair Claire's eyes flew open.

"Sherry, are they getting closer? Why haven't you said anything?" Claire's tone was anything but angry.

"They're definitely getting closer." Sherry gasped out. "Where's Jake?"

"He's coming." Claire said. _Where was the doctor?_ There was a monitor on Sherry's belly, and Claire hesitated before opening the door to ask for a nurse. "Sherry when is the last time anyone came in to check on you?"

"It's been a while," Sherry replied as the contraction subsided again. Sweat was beginning to glisten across her face.

There was one thing Claire had noticed that Sherry hadn't, and that was it was very quiet. There was no noise in the hall. No other nurses talking. They were on the end room but still, they should hear something. Claire had noted that there were very few other women in the delivery section this week.

"Something is wrong," Claire said suddenly eyeing the door. "It's too quiet out there."

Jake got to the hospital in record time.

The plane ride notwithstanding, he driven straight from the Air Port to the hospital, speeding the whole way. Claire had said ten minutes apart, but labor was labor. He started for the doors, not noticing the lack of people in the downstairs lobby until a bloody handprint on the receptionist's desk stopped him. It was square in the middle like some freaky out of place decoration.

He heard a strange gurgling sound and slowly edged over the counter to look at the floor.

Jake had never seen a zombie before. At least not in the brain or flesh eating sense. He'd encountered the J'Avo on many occasions. But the scene he encountered now would give him nightmares for some time.

The receptionist's sightless eyes stared up towards the ceiling as the zombie creature tore into her stomach. It's fingers greedily reached in and pulled out the organs as if it was starving and at a banquet, stuffing the gore into its mouth and spraying blood everywhere.

Jake slowly backed away reaching for a gun he didn't have. _Damn it, stupid air port regulations._

"Shit," He backed quietly to the elevator.

There was no one else on the first floor. He noticed even more blood spots as he went.

His phone suddenly rang.

Several heads shot up from around the room, heads he hadn't noticed before. Suddenly he was pressed against the elevator doors, his phone ringing as he desperately shoved his hand into his pocket to shut it off. His other hand slapped at the elevator buttons.

The zombies stood and advanced on him. They were covered in blood and their steps were uneven, as if they'd had too much to drink. Some of them stumbled, all of them were covered in blood. Jake shuddered and suddenly fell back into the elevator as the doors slid open, he hit the 7th floor button as the creatures came closer and the doors slid shut before the zombies could even get a finger in.

He picked up the phone and dialed Leon back.

"Jake," said Leon into the phone. "I found something…."

"It's going to have to wait," Jake snapped into the phone. "There's a fucking zombie apocalypse at the hospital, I haven't found Sherry or Claire yet. You might want to call the boy scouts in." He meant the BSAA. Leon could hear the worry in his voice.

"Shit," Leon said. "Be right there, I'll make some calls…how bad is it?"

"On a scale of 1 to 10? You're looking at a 20. Might be another Raccoon City," Jake yelled into the phone. "I've got to go find Sherry."

"Jake…wait!" But Jake had hung up and was dialing Claire's number as the elevator suddenly pinged that he was on the 7th floor.

The door slid open.

Claire's phone started to ring as she opened the door. Looking down at the hallway she noticed there wasn't a soul down the hallway but her ring tone echoed ominously. She glanced down at her phone and brought it up to her ear. It was Jake.

"Claire!" He sounded relieved. "Is Sherry ok?"

"We're fine," Claire said. "Everyone Is missing I can't figure out where they've all gone."

There was a pause oh the phone. "Claire it's fucking zombie central down at the bottom floor."

"What?" Claire stopped to consider this. She listened down the hall corridor to the empty silence. It was just like Raccoon City all over again. _But why? Why here? Why now?_

"What's it like outside?"

"Normal day." Said Jake, "but we know that it won't last for long."

"Jake listen to me." Claire responded, "We have to bar the hospital and prevent anything from getting out. Do you understand?"

"I'm getting you and Sherry out." There was a tightness to his voice and Claire suddenly felt a pang of empathy for him.

"We're fine. Nothing is up here with us yet, where are you?"

"I'm out here on the 7th floor. I was going to ask you to open the doors so I can get in…because you are definitely wrong about there not being anything up here."

"Damn." Claire stopped. He was already up here. There was not too much hope for keeping this contained then. She couldn't blame him at all.

"Jake," She tried again, "we have to make sure nothing escapes the hospital."

"Leon is on his way," Jake finally said after a moment of silence. "he'll bring back up and anything else we need. He's the hero not me, got it?"

"Sherry is fine," Claire said, suddenly hearing Sherry cry out in pain.

"What was that?" Jake said suddenly, hearing the cry.

"She is in labor." Claire snapped.

"She's going to attract anything that's left in that wing. Lock her in her room and open the door. I'm literally outside of it, trying not to attract too much attention but believe me, there are plenty of fucking zombies up here to attract."

Claire considered her options but knew that Jake was probably not going to rush away from them downstairs to close the doors with Sherry still up here.

"Ok," she said. "Stay alive out there. See you in five."

She disconnected, closed the door and went back to Sherry.

"They're getting closer," she gasped. "Three minutes."

"Ok, Sherry, I'm going to go let Jake in the maternity ward."

"Let him in? Where's the doctor or nurses?"

Claire wasn't sure how to respond. "There's a problem…"

"He's here, somewhere in the building, isn't he?" The fear on her face was evident. They both knew who she meant. Albert Wesker, Jr. the clone they had run into, or if he had somehow gotten the original Albert Wesker to return from the grave. They had speculated but were not sure how this was going to be accomplished.

"There are infected in the hall."

Sherry froze. Raccoon City coming back to haunt her at the worst time ever.

"I'm going to let Jake in, he is outside the maternity ward, but I'm going to lock the door."

Sherry gasped suddenly as another wave of pain rushed over her.

"Push the bed by the door," She managed to growl out.

Claire nodded and moved the bed with Sherry gasping on it. "Engage the lock when I leave." Claire told her. "And…try not to give birth while till we get back?"

It was a joke, and Sherry grinned. She had learned the same dark sense of humor since having to deal with Umbrella, the BSAA, and being a DOS agent. It helped you cope.

Claire pushed open the door and left, and Sherry after a moment pushed herself up and turned the lock. Then she fell back against the pillows gritting her teeth as she prepared to ride out the next contraction alone.

"Did you, do it?" Claire said through the door and tried to turn the knob. It didn't open. Relieved, Claire looked down the hall. They were at the other end of the corridor. She had a gun and hoped it was enough.

It was 50 feet to the door, and she could see Jake through the opening. He looked relieved but kept glancing behind him. She glanced down the hall, her ears straining for a sound. When she heard nothing, she moved forward.

There were bloody hand prints on the floor. She shuddered but continued moving forward silently resisting the urge to just run to the door and open it. The silence was grating. If there were infected up here shouldn't there be some sort noise, at least you would hear where they were eating.

 _How did we not hear any of this?_

Claire heard nothing as she moved towards the doors…until… There it was. A scrape of a chair being pushed out of the way and the dragging awkward steps. They were coming from the nurses' station. Claire peered around the corner to see a rather grisly scene.

The doctor was lying on his back on the floor and the nurses appeared to be having a bizarre ritual, pinning him to the floor as they surrounded him and tearing at his insides. His throat had been ripped out. _Probably why we heard no screams,_ Claire thought. Another Nurse was staggering over to get a handful of organs.

 _Oh God_ , thought Claire. She hoped that the other doors were locked, feeling slightly nauseated, she quietly moved past the station towards the door. She glanced back at the station making sure all the nurses were occupied and pushed the door open.

The door gave way with a click and Jake slid in closing the door behind him. This time the loud click did attract the attention of the infected nurses who all paused in their meal.

They rose as one and swung around to view the newcomers who'd interrupted them. Then with the staggering steps of those who's neurons were not necessarily firing correctly they slowly made their way around the counter with low growls and gurgling as they came in. Even the doctor's body started to twitch as the virus took over and attempted to reanimate.

Claire glanced over at Jake and suddenly noticed he was already covered in blood in a few spots. "What happened to you?" She said.

He looked over at her. "There are zombies in the hospital and you're asking what happened?"

Claire shrugged. "We always called them infected. So, what happened?"

He was surprised at her casual tone and tried to match it, even as the cadre of evil dead nurses staggered towards them. "Had to fight my way off the elevator. They go down fast enough as long as you don't get cornered. Light shift today otherwise probably wouldn't have made it." He held up a broken, wooden, chair leg.

Suddenly he lunged forward and bashed the leg into the skull of the first nurse to reach them. She dropped to the floor in a heap, the next one falling over her body. Jake put a heavy boot into that one's head as hard as he could, crushing it down immediately with a crunch that made Claire behind him feel suddenly nauseous. Hours ago, these women were taking Sherry's vitals and joking with them about the baby that was about to be born.

 _No time for that now,_ she thought moving out from behind Jake. She had a knife and gun, but not wanting to attract more of the hospitals deadly inhabitants she followed his example and used the knife.

Jake towered over every infected in the room and he simply smashed through them, punching in the nose so forcefully that it knocked back into their skulls dropping them in heaps as he went. There were only the six out here with the doctor, who was moving now attempting to get off the floor.

Claire moved to him and sunk her knife into his eye socket as Jake dropped the last nurse stabbing her under the chin.

He shuddered in front of her and she realized he was not taking this scene as easily as she first thought. As he turned and glanced at her to make sure she was all right she noted that his face looked gray.

"Haven't seen everything just yet?"

"I don't know why they keep surprising me with something else," he muttered in reply. There were no other infected in the hall here.

"Let's get to Sherry and then we'll check on the others." Claire was moving forward.

"Others?"

"Well there were three other women here this weekend," Claire replied. They moved down the hallway and Jake knocked on the door belonging to Sherry.

He turned to Claire, "Why isn't she answering?"

"Give her a minute," said Claire, "she was maybe three minutes apart when I came out here."

Jake shot a panicked look at Claire. "Three minutes?"

They both heard Sherry cry out and Claire was suddenly glad that Jake had shown up. At this rate they would have had all the nurses in their room. The maternity ward doors would keep the rest of the hospital infected out. There was no getting in without a passcode of sorts.

"Just…a…sec…." Sherry gasped out. Outside the door Jake tensed. His fists clenched together.

"Come on Super Girl," he whispered the nickname like a prayer to the door, his eyes closed.

Then suddenly the lock clicked and he was pushing the door open before Claire had even moved.

"Sherry," Jake took her in his arms before stepping back to take a look at her. Her face was red from the pain and there were tears in her eyes.

"Sorry," she got out. "I wasn't sure if you were coming back…I" She gasped again and Jake could swear he could see her belly tensing up. Claire was at her side in an instant.

"Breathe," she said soothingly.

"Breathe?" Sherry snapped at her. "Aaahh," She gritted her teeth against the pain. She wanted to get up and move around and lay down on her side, and die all at the same time. The pain was becoming unbearable, but she could also feel a burning sensation as the baby began to make her way down and out of the birth canal.

Jake stood and stared at Sherry for a moment completely lost. It took him a moment to realize that Claire was yelling at him.

"Jake!"

"What do I do?" He held up his hands.

"Close and lock the door." Claire said. "Then grab one of those blue towels there. You are going to catch your daughter Mr. Muller."

"What? Now?" Jake locked the door and then grabbed a towel as Claire moved Sherry towards the edge of her bed.

"You sure you don't want to do this in the tub?" Claire was asking Sherry.

"There is no time." Sherry gasped and suddenly began to bear down.

"Slow down," Claire tried, only to have Sherry snap.

"Slow down? She's coming. Now!" She pushed harder halfway sitting up, uttering a few choice swear words that surprised Jake.

Jake was crouched at the end of the table between Sherry's legs. His fearful expression suddenly changed from panicked to awe. "She's coming," he called excitedly, spreading out the towel. "I can see her head."

"Keep pushing," Claire was trying to be encouraging.

Sherry pushed hard and suddenly the head was free, Jake caught little Anja Muller in a mess of blood and water, onto the blue towel. Slowly the rest of the infant came forward until the shoulders were free and then Jake bundled her into the towel. He swiftly brought her up to Sherry and laid the infant on her chest. _And the child had a set of lungs that would bring every zombie on the entire planet surging into this one room_ , Jake thought, feeling proud and afraid at the same time.

Sherry still surging from an adrenaline rush put her hands out and leaned back as Jake laid the baby in her arms. For the moment he just stared at them both, and then realized he was still covered in blood from the infected he'd battled just to get here.

 _Well shit_ , he thought, _nothing like baptizing your newborn in the blood of your enemies on her first day._ He ran to the sink and started scrubbing his hands and arms. The shirt he couldn't do much about right now.

He turned back to Sherry and Claire. "Shouldn't we cut the cord or something?"


	4. Chapter 4 Escape or Mini Apocalypse

Leon had called in for back up after leaving the cloned boy in the charge of another agent. The hospital in question was a few hours away by plane. He pondered the timing and decided it was probably not ironic at all but completely planned. When dealing with Wesker, the man never left anything to chance.

He had not been able to reach Ada by any means as of late. That worried him more than he was going to admit to anyone. That alone told him Wesker was probably back in some form or another. Ada knew too much about anything. Getting her to talk was another matter entirely. She was never free with her information.

Local law enforcement had been called in to seal the hospital off without going inside, they'd been told there was a viral outbreak inside and to seal the doors from the outside. That much was true but no one would have guessed the true nature of the outbreak.

He arrived at the hospital several hours after receiving Jake's call. He didn't see anything unusual outside of the city. His relief was short-lived though when he noticed the amount of news helicopters hovering in the area.

He parked his rental car in the street and simply walked through to the first officer on the scene.

"Anything?" He asked flashing his badge, the man paled when he saw the Division of Security Operations Badge. Leon frowned, he didn't think they'd gotten that much notoriety yet. But then again, the recent outbreaks in the past few years might have gained them some attention. They had become a common occurrence in other parts of the world.

Leon was armed to the teeth, but he knew he'd probably be using his knife mostly. Claire had mentioned it was like Raccoon City all over again. He wondered if she noted the fact that they were both going to be in the thick of it again.

Jake had probably gone in guns blazing making a bloody trail all the way to Sherry. Leon shook his head. The younger man's ability to survive had amazed even him. He was glad Jake and Sherry had found each other.

"Sir," the officer had tapped him on the shoulder. "The building is secure; we have been told to wait outside."

"I'm going in."

"But-"

"This is my job," said Leon giving him a smile. "It's what I'm trained for."

There were Marines and BSAA en route but Leon decided to go in first. He wanted to make sure Jake and Sherry didn't get shot by mistake. Their identities were at stake here. If the wrong person spotted them, another manhunt could ensue.

 _No, definitely not a coincidence at all._

He opened the front door. "Bar this behind me," he said to the two cops who'd followed him.

He heard it clang shut and winced. If the place was crawling with the undead they'd be on him in minutes. Hopefully Jake had cleared some sort of path through.

 _Seven floors to get down_ , Jake thought. _And then what?_

Sherry had described Raccoon City to him. At least as much as he could coax out of her. The rest he'd read about. It wasn't pretty. The city had been bombed and destroyed to get every bit of the infected.

He had also never seen the "infected" Sherry had described. They resembled every classic movie Zombie that he paused to wonder if that had been the intention. Leon had mentioned seeing them on the streets of China. He and Sherry had managed to make it through not seeing them. Not that there had not been plenty of other creatures to keep them occupied.

 _Why here though?_

His phone beeped. It was a text from Leon. _In building._

Claire had groaned when she saw it, muttering something about Leon thinking he was a "One man army" or something along those lines.

Jake had grinned however. He had been partnered with Leon for the past few months. Leon had called it "on the job" training. They got along well in one respect. Jake was just as reckless as Leon was. Hunnigan had commented and complained more than once on the risks she thought they were taking. But the jobs got done and she left it at that.

But seven floors with Sherry and an infant? Jake shuddered. Sherry would smell of blood. There was just no getting around the fact. She had just given birth and would probably bleed for the next few weeks. Assuming they all survived. Her healing had made her mobile quickly but that didn't stop other natural biological processes.

He had helped her wash and clean herself as best as she could be under the circumstances. He had even ripped the bed sheet in half and fashioned a baby sling. He was going to strap Anja to himself but Sherry had insisted on that she wear Anja. She had fed Anja and the baby was asleep, cleaned and changed.

"How will you feed her if we get separated?" Sherry had asked. "I'm a bit more equipped for that."

"We won't get separated," Jake had retorted, but he conceded the point.

Claire for her part had observed them quietly, holding Anja when Sherry was washing, all without a word. It had taken a while for her to accept Jake, especially considering who his father had been. Jake had tried not to fault her for it but it had gotten old after a while. She was at least convinced they were on the same side.

 _Seven floors_ , he thought again, returning to the present problem. He glanced behind himself at the two women with him. Waiting for rescue was not option. They could not know what was going on, if this was just a mess to get at Sherry or possibly Anja and Jake was not going to let that happen. No matter what.

"Ready?"

"Ready." Sherry nodded to him. Anja was strapped securely in place to her chest no bigger than a loaf of bread. Sherry was also carrying a small backpack filled with diapers, wipes and pads. A knife was tucked into her belt of the jeans she had brought.

He glanced at them both for a long moment. Fear gripped him so completely that for the moment he could not open the door. He simply looked at Sherry taking her in like a dying man needing water. He took a deep breath.

"It's now or never," Sherry whispered to him, reading him like a book.

He shrugged and slowly opened the door glancing out down the hallway, simultaneously thanking the Almighty, he couldn't quite bring himself to believe in, that the hinges were silent for once.

"We'll check the other rooms," He said to Claire.

"Survivors?" Sherry asked.

"I don't know," Jake replied. "If I wasn't worried about Wesker showing up, we wouldn't be attempting this at all."

"He won't be after the others," Claire said. "Let's at least warn them to stay in their rooms for now."

"The whole maternity section is down." Jake said. "But once we leave it will be fucking chaos in the rest of the hospital. At least that was the first floor when I came in."

Sherry nodded again. This was nothing new to her.

The first door was they tried was empty. Jake pried open the second door and was greeted a scene so macabre he closed the door immediately and refused to let Sherry or Claire look in. "They're all dead," was all he managed.

Sherry and Claire exchanged glances but didn't argue.

Jake attempted the next door but it was locked. He rapped on the door. "Hey, anyone in there?"

"Is it over?" A young man opened the door and Jake could see he was petrified.

"Fraid not," Jake said. "Stay in here, help is on the way. The maternity section is sealed off. Nothing will get in here without codes."

"Wait where are you going?" The young man came forward. Jake shoved him back.

"Checking for survivors." Jake replied. "Keep this locked." He pulled the door closed again before the young man could protest. He didn't have time to help the young man get his own family out and they were safer here.

The other two rooms were not so fortunate. Jake had to kill an infected woman who was moving about in one of them, her newborn baby in pieces hanging from her mouth.

"Damn, I hate Neo-Umbrella," he said under his breath. He hated them, hated his father, it was almost a mantra he'd repeated many times over the past few months. He wiped the sweat off his brow as he didn't bother to check the last room. The occupant had died in the doorway and she was wedged there, apparently, she had tried to make a run for it.

 _At least she wasn't a Zombie_ , he thought.

Soon they were at the exit doors where Claire had let Jake in earlier. He peered through the windows and out into the halls. Empty…but that didn't mean much in a situation like this.

Claire and Sherry stood keeping an eye behind him.

He paused and then made an observation. "It's almost like she knows to keep quiet," Jake said suddenly without looking at Anja.

"Are you serious?" Sherry countered. "She's just a baby."

"Well a smart one." Jake replied looking straight ahead. "Daddy is proud already."

"Just wait until you're up all night with her," Claire said.

"And your experience with babies is….?" Jake let the sentence hang in the air. Claire had devoted herself to taking down Neo-Umbrella, Albert Wesker, etc. Little of which had left her time for making a family.

She remained silent and glaring at the back of his head, letting him know the barb had struck home. Jake felt a little guilty but pushed that aside. "Alright already," he said. They were having an amazing amount of luck so far. So much that Jake didn't trust it. "Let's get to the elevator." He swept a glance around again making sure there were no more surprises than the usual and opened the door.

An Ustanak would have preferable to the Zombies, he decided inwardly. At least they didn't rip your guts out and eat them. Ustanaks were just big, strong, and ugly. Hard as hell to kill…but they took orders just like J'Avo.

There was just something horrifying about Zombies, or infected as Sherry called them. Even the creatures he had encountered in Edonia were preferable. Strelats, Napads, and lickers, they were basically animals.

Zombies were dead men. Dead men who wouldn't die and wanted to take you with them. They kept going when they should have laid down and died.

The hall was empty and surprisingly they made it to the elevator with no problems.

"This is too easy." Jake muttered. "I don't like this."

"Be thankful." Said Claire as she punched a button. She half expected it not to work, Jake had said there were infected in the halls but where were they?

"Listen," said Jake suddenly. There was a low moaning sound followed by the sound of tearing. Claire had started forward but Jake grabbed her arm. She shook his hand off. "It's too late for them," he said softly. "They are not even alive still."

It was true, she knew but Claire still wanted to go out there and mow down the infected. Jake brought her back to reality. "Let's get Sherry out of here…then if you want, we can come back and clean house."

Claire nodded.

Suddenly the elevator pinged and the doors opened.

Leon stood inside pointing a gun at them, his faced completely surprised. At the same time there was a sudden silence which indicated the ping had not gone unnoticed by the infected down the hall.

"Get in!" Jake growled grabbing Sherry's arm and pushing her inside. They all rushed in just as the infected made their way around the corner. The doors sliding closed before the first one could reach them.

"Well this is the most uneventful job ever," Leon said checking his gun.

"What it's like downstairs?" Jake asked doing the same.

"I may have taken out a few here and there," said Leon. "Calvary is probably already downstairs."

"No problems?" Claire said with some surprise.

The doors pinged open and at the same time Anja began to stir against Sherry's chest.

There was a blood trail in front of the doorway and boot prints. Leon shrugged. "We won't have an issue getting out."

Claire nodded. She and Leon stepped out together both facing in opposite directions. There were plenty of infected here and she shot the first one as it staggered toward her. Alone they were hardly a danger, the problem lay in their numbers. No one else had stepped inside yet.

"Run." Leon said.

"Time to go!" Jake took Sherry's hand and pulled her towards the front door at a fast pace.

They hit the glass on the front doors which were still barred. Leon pulled up front and flashed his badge suddenly. The door was opened immediately and the same officer who Leon had run into earlier was there again. "The only survivors?"

"No," said Jake, "there are others in the maternity ward. Made them stay locked in their rooms."

The officer stared up at Jake as he towered over him. Immediately Jake flashed his own Division of Operations Security badge. The affect was immediate, the younger officer backed off and away.

Jake turned around immediately and pulled Sherry against him in a hug resting his chin on her head.

Suddenly Anja started to cry.

There were camera flashes all around. The Media had made it in not close yet but just outside the perimeter.

Jake kept his back to them shielding Sherry as she pulled Anja from her sling.

"You think I could try to feed her somewhere a little more private?" She asked Leon.

There were marines everywhere and groups of BSAA operatives huddled together outside. People recognized the insignias began backing away in a hurry.

"I think the calvary has arrived," said Jake. "Maybe they'll lend us a van."

Leon was silent for a moment; his face was troubled. "That was too easy," he said finally glancing at Claire to see if she agreed.

"Easy?" Asked Sherry. "What do you mean?"

But Jake was nodding. "This was a walk in the park next to China or Edonia. Or anything else we've run into the past week."

Leon was nodding. "I think we were just provided the biggest distraction Wesker could think of." He was moving them towards the vans.

Chris ran up suddenly. "Leon, you got a minute?"

"Chris?" Leon was surprised to see Chris Redfield here.

Leon moved towards Chris while Claire and Jake moved Sherry into a waiting van.

"Yeah, what is it?"

The older clone we found, the one who didn't know anything? He just died…"

"Died?"

"Collapsed in on himself, I don't think he was supposed to survive for very long…"

"And the boy?"

"Gone."

"Gone?"

Chris nodded. "I don't know, but I think the kid knew more than he let on. During the transition the older clone started coughing and then just died. The boy disappeared."

"Are you sure he didn't die as well?" Leon groaned inwardly. Jake was not going to like this.

Jake joined them nodding a greeting to Chris. It had taken some time but the two had buried the hatchet after Jake had found out that Chris had killed his biological father, Albert Wesker. Hell, Jake had moments where he wished he'd been the one to pull the trigger. He couldn't think of a worse man to be associated with. Let alone be the son of.

"Survivors?" Chris said, changing the subject.

"One family upstairs," Jake responded, "Locked in room 708. Didn't see anyone else though."

Chris nodded and moved away, but turned back when Leon called to him.

"Chris…you realize this was just a distraction, right?"

"Hell of a distraction, Leon."


	5. Chapter 5

Ada awoke on a cot in a square room. She was dressed in what could be described as a nurses outfit. A bright floral pattern on the top made her grimace, as well as the plain colored blue pants. They had stripped her and searched her while unconscious. _Interesting._ Part of her wanted to feel violated, another part of her wanted to commend them for being thorough. They hadn't drugged her mind however, and in Ada's experience her mind was the best tool for any job. She laid back onto the cot and stared up at the ceiling to figure out her predicament.

A toilet was located in the room in the opposite corner. That wasn't too much of a decoration.

"Glad to see you are finally awake." Wesker Jr.'s voice floated to her from a small screen located in the wall.

"What am I doing here?" She said sitting up. Wesker again, he was proving to be a difficult boss.

"Ah, straight to the point. Good, I'm embarking on a new matter and could do without your interference for a bit."

"Sherry Birkin?"

"She can wait for the moment."

Ada filed this away. _Something more important than Sherry Birkin's G-Virus?_ She settled into her cot mentally steeling herself for the wait.

"No arguments?"

"Would they work?"

"Probably not."

"Waste of time and energy then." She lay back. "Reading material might be nice for the duration though. If you don't mind."

For a moment, Wesker was taken back but he nodded. "But of course, I'll send you something you may find interesting." His face disappeared from the screen and it went dark.

Ada sighed and lay back. She had survived this long by not losing her mind. Even captured there was always a way out if you waited for the right moment. She wasn't dead yet so she assumed he still needed her for some reason. She shuddered. As long as no one was making another clone of her somewhere.

Again, she felt a slight pang of remorse. Leon wouldn't approve and she had to choose between the two. She had kept him at a distance for a reason. This kind of job required no strings attached, especially the more knowledge you acquired about who you were dealing with. You would be putting their life in danger the second you started to care about what happened to them.

The Family. They were an interesting group. Ada wondered if they would consider the Clones of Wesker a new threat or simply watch with interest. The senior Albert Wesker never left anything to chance with them. They never got close enough to him to gun him down as they had done with Simmons.

Her time in China had been interesting to say the least. She had saved Jake and Sherry, twice although they never knew who had fired those shots or scooped Sherry off the boat.

And now Albert Wesker, the cloned version wanted Sherry all to himself. _To what end?_

 _No competition._

A free Sherry walking the streets could be taken by anybody. Samples distributed…that made a little more sense to Ada.

But Ada wasn't going anywhere for the moment and for the time being appeared safe despite her supposed "interference." She relaxed for a moment and closed her eyes. So, what could be more important than obtaining the mutated virus in Sherry's system?

 _ **Project Resurrection.**_ Her eyes flew open. She nearly shot up off the bed when realization struck. Wesker was planning on making a comeback after all. And the odds were she would have interfered. She'd felt nothing when she learned he had been killed by the BSAA agent Chris Redfield. She'd been surprised that the C-Virus antibodies host had been his son, mostly because when had Wesker slowed down enough to have sex with a woman, let alone get one pregnant? And then not know about it? A man who was that meticulous?

The clones suddenly made sense. Wesker had been an arrogant bastard. A son, or any lineage would not have been good enough. The files she'd handed over to Leon only mentioned Project Resurrection in passing. They were mostly about the cloning process and that it was designed as a start to a project they might never need or get into later.

She sighed. This clone was smarter than she hoped.

Leon sat across from Claire in a truck just outside the hospital. Jake and Sherry had been gone for a few hours. A detail had been assigned to watch their apartment.

"It had to have been a distraction," Leon said.

"From what?" Claire was all seriousness. She would have gone back with Sherry but Leon had held her back. One look at Jake had convinced him that Claire was probably the worst thing that could happen to them now. They needed to be alone. As much as they could be.

Leon could only shrug. Most of the infected had been taken care of. There were a lot of survivors. Plenty of people who were going to need therapy. Relatively speaking it had been a small event. Much smaller than anything he'd had to deal with. While there were plenty of casualties, this was a better outcome than most.

"I don't know," Leon admitted. "But it doesn't feel right. It was too easy."

Claire only lifted an eye brow at him.

"Oh please," said Leon eyeing her. "IF Sherry had not been carrying her newborn…the four of us could have cleared that place. Easy."

"Says the one-man army." Claire rolled her eyes.

Leon sat back. "The clones, this outbreak…"

"None were the first clone we'd encountered?"

"No…we haven't seen him yet."

"The latest?"

"Still a child…"

"And he's already disappeared?"

"He always one step ahead. "Claire muttered to herself.


	6. Chapter 6

"I want you to go into hiding while Leon and I figure this out." Jake broached the thought as soon as they were in the door of their apartment.

"What?" Sherry stopped in front of him, he placed his hands on her shoulders to keep from running into her.

"I think…" Jake started again but Sherry turned around and stared up at him. Her anger was evident, any other time he would have been amused as he looked down at her.

 _Not today, not after the hospital._

"No."

"Sherry, this isn't a good time to argue about it."

"Then don't argue with me when I say no." She moved away from him then and laid Anja down in her carrier and turned to face him. "I'm an agent."

"What about Anja?" Jake's question made Sherry slow down for a moment. They hadn't figured out if Anja was normal or not. If anything from their respective viruses had carried down to the newborn. The odds were high that she would inherit something from them. That made her a target.

A target that most likely the Wesker clone had noticed by now.

Leaving their baby with anyone would potentially put that person in harm's way. Not to mention that would be just one more person who knew about Anja.

Sherry sighed. She knew Jake was right, she hated him for it.

"Do you think she has…" She let the sentence drop. Jake was staring at her from across the room. His hands clenching at his sides, his expression answering her question before she finished it.

She dropped her head and he moved swiftly to her and put his arms around her.

"We both know it's likely she does." He said stroking her hair. He held her for a while, afraid to let her go.

Jake and Leon were sitting in the kitchen of Leon's house. The decorations were Spartan as Leon rarely spent a huge amount of time there.

Leon gave Jake a hard look. "Look, I've been doing this for a long time. Believe me, this can always get worse." He was thinking of his time in the Eastern Slave Republic. It wasn't that far from Edonia, where Jake had been born. Both countries had been torn apart by civil war and the heavy use of B.O.W.s by one side or the ESR had been a nightmare. Not that anything after that had been easy, his friend the president having been killed, the subsequent battle with Simmons, crash landing in China. But Leon knew the technology they were dealing with was quite extensive. In the ESR he'd seen the B.O.W.s being controlled like dogs. They'd even been used to rescue him more than once.

"Imagine lickers, strelats, napads," he said stumbling a little over the Serbian words.

"Jake picked up the Serbian readily as it was fairly close to his own mother tongue, Edonian.

"Strelats, Napads, lickers, oh my!" He paused. "So?"

"So, they aren't even close to the worst thing ever."

"I've seen HAOS," Jake replied. "I know they can make things much worse."

"HAOS? Nah, that was a piece of cake," Leon shrugged going for a coffee mug and then pouring whiskey into it. He turned back, a serious look on his face. "Don't tell Chris I ever said that."

Jake only shrugged. It was not like he and Chris Redfield were best friends. Besides he had seen and battled plenty of monsters.

Leon continued. "They've got weapons that you can the control the B.O.W.s with. How do you think they managed to control so many J'Avo? Almost Instantly?"

Jake shrugged. He wanted to ask why it didn't work on him, but that would be acknowledging that he'd been injected by Neo-Umbrella, twice. He hadn't talked about it, not even with Sherry, the one person he trusted more than anyone else. He wasn't ready to admit anything.

"They have the technology for that kind of control. I'm sure that Carla Radames was using it." Leon continued. His experiences with the nightmarish Plaga parasites fresh on his mind. There were plenty of things they could be playing with now.

"She was an experiment herself, wasn't she?" Jake asked. Sherry had briefly given him a run down on other events that happened in China. The woman who had given him the C-Virus shot in the first place. The one who had also told him who his father had been. He shuddered.

"Leon nodded. "Trust me," said Leon. "The Ustanak is just the beginning of their arsenal. And they never learn that the B.O.W.s are a bad idea."

Jake stared grimly ahead. Both thrilled and horrified with what they were about to face.

He understood B.O.W.s. His unit had been completely turned into J'Avo almost a year ago, he'd faced an Ustanak on several occasions, and by some miracle he was still breathing. Hell, he'd even been given a dose of the C-virus and due to his unfortunate inherited genetics from his father, he'd been enhanced. It was the only helpful gift Wesker had left him.

He wasn't about to explain that to Leon either.

Nor was he going to admit his own fears. That he was no longer human, that if injured he could possibly turn into a monster. Some men would kill to have the abilities that Jake did. Jake just wanted to make sure he was still human. If it wasn't for Sherry Jake would have been reckless, possibly not worrying about whether he would come back. But in the back of his mind he always wanted to return for her sake. Because he knew already the arguments she would make and how much she passionately believed in them. And he loved her for it.

Speaking of Sherry. "She's packing up with Claire's help," He said changing the subject.

"Going into hiding?" Leon was surprised. He should have suggested it himself but the last time anyone had brought it up was when Sherry had been targeted by a kidnapping before. She'd refused to hide and ended up killing an Ustanak before it was all over.

"The baby changes things," Jake said following Leon's thoughts.

"I'm just surprised you are not going with her." Leon had mostly thought them inseparable until Sherry's pregnancy had caught up with her. On missions Jake was moody when they weren't working. Always eager to get back home. Leon hadn't blamed him then.

"She wasn't happy about it," Jake continued. "But she doesn't trust the government to hide them, and after what happened before I don't blame her."

"So where is she going?"

"She'll take a flight with Chris."

"Chris? He's got enough contacts worldwide," muttered Leon.

"Yeah well, apparently, the boy scouts believe she's still wanted and they aren't sharing with our government," Jake said. "But what Chris told me was that he was watching Sherry for months. Sherry was the liaison between the BSAA and the DOS because she knows everyone. But she knew they were all just babysitting her. Waiting for something to happen."

"Leon nodded, his fingers drummed the table. It made sense." So, she's going to them?"

"She trusts Chris," said Jake.

"And we'll find that clone in the meantime," Leon said.

Jake shrugged standing. "That's the plan. I'm heading out to see her off."

"I'll come to, if anything to get Claire out of the way for a little bit."

Jake grinned. "Thanks."


	7. Chapter 8

There were three helicopters waiting at the landing pad. Sherry went for the middle one. She could see the pilot was already inside waiting. The blades started turning on their approach. Sherry hesitated. This was happening too fast. Too soon.

She tightened her grip on Jake's hand. She felt his own hand grip hers in turn. They didn't say anything out loud. They didn't need to.

Ada Wong had met them at the hangar. Since she had often come to help Leon in the past he had stopped to listen to what she had to say. Leon had sent them on ahead. He hadn't been able to reach Ada but her appearance out of nowhere seemed out of place. Leon called Jake back.

Jake released Sherry's hand reluctantly. "Go, wait by the platform, I'll be right there," he said to Sherry giving the area one last scan. She nodded her face pinched. Anja moody and gave a small cry. Sherry smiled down at her. At least the infant could express her feelings without anyone telling her not to break down. Sherry couldn't afford to break down. Not now. She adjusted the carrier and moved towards the helicopter blocking the strong wind from the blades from Anja's head.

She turned around as she neared the helicopters for a quick glance at Jake.

That's when shit hit the fan.

Jake had gone maybe fifty feet when the J'Avo swept over the platform from behind. Sherry was alone up there armed with a hand gun and an infant. Jake had been jogging back towards the hangar when he heard Sherry's scream.

"Jake!" The J'Avo swept around her and seemed everywhere at once.

"Sherry!" He immediately bolted in her direction. Behind him Leon and Chris struggled to keep up.

There were so many J'Avo taking Sherry this time there was no way to reach her. She still had Anja strapped to her chest. Even the J'Avo were taking care not to jostle her too much. She struggled against the arms that held and disarmed her.

Jake, guns drawn had leapt into the fray. "Sherry!" He yelled firing at the J'Avo indiscriminately. Many he shot straight in the head dropped straight to the ground. Others who were not so lucky mutated on the spot as the virus tried to repair the damaged limb or organs. When he ran out of bullets he dropped the guns and started swinging.

Leon glanced around. Ada was nowhere to be seen.

 _Ada did this_. Leon thought. For once he didn't wonder about the woman behind the mask she projected. Sherry he had rescued, Ada knew that.

This was betrayal pure and simple. There was no questioning her motives. Sherry should have been off limits. Not a target.

Leon had kept moving forward, Chris on his right, Claire on his left. "Shit!" He said to Chris, "he's going to get himself killed!"

The J'Avo however grabbed Jake and pinned him to the ground.

Jake let out a yell of frustration. He could no longer hear or see Sherry. One of the helicopters lifted off and flew away. He was still pinned to the ground on his back staring up at J'Avo as they moved around him.

Suddenly the J'avo were gone, swarming away and Jake was on his feet. Leon, Claire were moving forward surrounding him. There was one helicopter missing from the pad. An extra baby blanket Sherry had been carrying to cover Anja in when they traveled had blown across the grounds.

He dropped to his knees in front of the blanket, grabbed it up, and held it to his chest. Then he punched the ground with both hands until his knuckles bled.

For the first time since his mother had died, Jake Muller sobbed. "Sherry, damn it!" He swore banging a fist on the ground again. The sounds of J'Avo died away and Leon and Chris pulled up just behind him.

"Shit," Chris swore watching the helicopters recede. He spoke into his ear piece. "We got a destination or direction for that chopper?"

"Negative, our radar is scrambled."

"Well fix it!" Chris barked into the microphone.

"Ada." Leon swore again. Ada never hurt innocent people as far as he could tell. Her style, while questionable, tended to find every loophole in the job for the minimum damage. While he tended to get in guns blazing, Ada was a bit more tactful.

Usually.

He couldn't understand what had happened here exactly.

He put his hand on Jake's shoulder. Seeing Jake's shoulders shake in helplessness was the most disturbing sight he'd come across in a while. He glanced over at Claire who was pursing her lips in a tight line.

There wasn't any love lost between Claire and Jake, but they both would protect Sherry at all costs. Without Sherry, he was going to have to buffer between the two.

"We'll get her back." Leon was telling himself more than anyone. Chris stood back, still not certain any overture would be welcome from him.

"You know what he'll do with them," Jake said in a loud whisper. His head hung forward as he struggled to maintain control of himself. He hated feeling helpless and that threatened to engulf him. He tried to hold onto fury instead. Anything that would keep him going.

"I have an idea," Leon said back to him keeping a firm grip on his shoulder.

Jake's shoulders stopped heaving and he slowly stood up. Leon released him and stepped back.

He turned around, the baby blanket clutched in one large hand the other balled into a fist. His jaw was clenched, and it was not despair that Leon noticed there but pure rage. His eyes were red rimmed from crying, but also cold and full of fury.

Claire actually took a step back. This was what Jake was without Sherry. Briefly she wondered what he'd been like when Sherry had first met him. Sherry had to convince him he was needed to save the world. He was a giant ball of anger ready to snap.

"We'll get them back," Leon said again to Jake. Leon meant it to, first he would deal with Ada though.

"Yeah, you bet we will," Jake said in a low dangerous voice, looking at Leon. "I don't care what sort of fucking monsters they create. I will go through ALL of them if that's what it takes." He glanced over at Chris. "And I'll even put a fucking bullet back in that bastard's head."

Chris nodded. "I'm in."

Leon nodded. "I think we're all in," he said glancing over at Claire who only nodded.

"Good," said Jake, "Then let's go put dear old Dad back into his fucking grave again."


	8. Chapter 9

Sherry recognized the familiar skyline and sucked in her breath hard. It was so etc. etched in her memory that she would have recognized where she was from any angle. She stared in shock, clutching Anja protectively against her chest.

The Arklay mountains rose up in front of the helicopter and the ruins of Raccoon City stretched out below. Sherry could see shrubs growing between the dilapidated buildings.

What could possibly be here?

The place had been leveled in an attempt to contain the infected. It had worked then…until someone else decided to play with the Virus again.

There must be an underground facility. Something buried in the ground that was left untouched. Sherry shuddered. Her memories bringing up her time as a child fleeing the monster her father had become. She hated to admit she was terrified. She hadn't been back here since she left.

She stared at the J'Avo that had accompanied her into the helicopter. J'Avo were a result of the C-Virus. They were capable of speech, took orders better than any soldier, but the virus caused their faces to deform. And if injured their bodies would mutate in an attempt to keep them going. The mutations were never pretty. They might sprout another set of limbs or wings, they were generally random. This J'Avo like many others had one normal eye…and four others in random places on its face. In China most of the J'Avo wore masks to conceal their destroyed visages.

The J'Avo stared back giving no indication that it was highly intelligent or thinking much beyond its orders to retain her. There was no room for pitying the creature anymore.

Sherry had no idea what prompted her to do it. She blamed Jake's influence over her as he tended to be incredibly reckless.

She glanced at the J'avo again, and then checked to make sure Anja was secured to her chest.

She made her move. The idea was to shove the J'avo out of the large helicopter and then somehow overpower the pilot.

Not that things always worked out the way they were supposed to.

The J'avo proved to be a little more aware of his surroundings than Sherry had anticipated. Maybe because it had so many eyes. When Sherry launched herself at the J'avo he reacted with surprise but managed to latch on to the side of the helicopter with his legs hanging out one hand swinging free.

"Shit!" Sherry yelled as the helicopter lurched to one side. She held onto the seat as the helicopter swung out of control for a few dizzying seconds.

The J'avo swung trying to pull itself back in and Sherry kicked at its fingers trying to avoid its free arm. Suddenly it let go and fell into the trees which were not that far below them.

The helicopter had righted itself and Sherry turned towards the pilot.

The door was open and he glanced back seeing her alone without the J'avo, made his own decision.

The guy bailed.

Sherry was shocked for a moment but managed to clamber into the pilot seat. It seemed no one necessarily wanted to give their lives for Neo-Umbrella or whoever had ordered her kidnapping.

They had been flying low over the treetops to avoid radar so she couldn't imagine that the fall had been a pleasant one. He probably had a parachute ready.

The helicopter jerked and wheeled and Sherry knew with a sinking feeling that there was no way she was going to be able stabilize it. There was another parachute next to her and she grabbed it with shaking fingers getting an arm through it when the helicopter went into a dizzying spin. She yanked open the door with the other arm and managed to get the other arm through just as the nose brushed the tree tops as it spun down, both she and Anja were tossed through the door in the opposite direction the helicopter crashed in. The parachute deploying uselessly managed to snag them high up in the tree tops.

The explosion rocked the ground and knocked Sherry closer to the tree.  
She looked down at her feet dangling high off the ground and then at Anja still strapped to her chest.

"At least we know the baby carrier works under pressure," she muttered sounding just like Jake for a moment.

For the first time in her life since her parents had died Sherry lost it.

She screamed and cursed using every bit of profanity she had picked up from her husband over the past year. She even cursed at him that he wasn't here knowing that it wasn't his fault. She yelled at her parents for helping Wesker in the first place, for dying, and for Simmons for betraying her. Everything that had happened that she'd told herself she was ok with came out.

Anja was crying loudly in her carrier and Sherry joined right along with her.

They made so much noise until Sherry feeling exhausted, ceased her yells, feeling her arms aching from the way she was hanging suspended in the air.

A sudden smell on the breeze gave her a jolt and another rush of adrenaline.

Smoke.

No doubt helicopter had gone down in a blazing inferno.

But she realized suddenly that with the amount of trees this close together this was a tinderbox waiting to burn.

She began swinging desperately for the nearest tree which had the added side effect of putting Anja to sleep. Her arms ached from hanging from the parachute but she continued to get her momentum going like a pendulum.

She still had a knife in her pocket as the J'avo may have been more intelligent, but they were not thorough. Her pilot definitely had not checked her before taking off the way they did. Any second he wasted and Jake would have been there and on him.

 _Jake._

She felt another pang wash over and redoubled her efforts to get down. She was going to see him again, no one was going to keep them separated. She finally snagged a branch and pulled herself close to the tree trying to get her footing and doing her best not to jostle Anja at the same time.

Once she was secured she reached into her pocket and withdrew her pocket knife. It wasn't the ideal knife for this job but it would work. Hopefully.

Sherry could still smell the smoke and that motivated her to work faster.

One side broke and her left arm stung as the pressure came off of it. She turned towards the right and sawed through the other side.

The pressure eased off of both arms now and Sherry had to take a break. She could feel the muscles returning to normal already. One of the side effects of the G-Virus vaccine. Healing.

She chanced a glimpse down.

"Only 50 feet to go." She told the sleeping Anja. "Remind me to spoil you rotten when you're older."

The climb down was the most uneventful part of the trip so far.

"You know this is going extremely well considering what usually happens," Sherry said to Anja when her feet touched the ground.

She had survived the helicopter crash with hardly a scratch on her with a SLEEPING infant attached to her chest. She was glad that Anja was still so small and easily carried.

It was almost completely dark now and Arklay forest was the last place you wanted to be at night. There was a bright orange glow off to the right and Sherry considered moving towards it but headed away from it instead. They were probably close to the facilities considering where they were and she had no intention of being caught.  
Her phone was still in her other pocket. She pulled it out and dialed Jake's number. There was one bar, maybe it would go through…

"Hel…. Rry… hear…." Suddenly burst into her ear drum.

"Jake! Jake! Can you hear me?" She almost shouted into the phone startling Anja who woke up startled and started to whimper. His voice made her feel a small amount of relief. He was alive wherever he was.

"Jake, listen if you can hear me! I'm near Raccoon City, near the Arklay mountains, the helicopter crashed, can you hear me?"

"Sher… wha… Ark…." The static was unbearable. The signal suddenly went out…

"Dammit," Sherry cried. She had to sit down with Anja as the baby girl was nuzzling against her chest, and Sherry realized that she was probably VERY hungry. It was pitch black out. She turned her phone off and put it in her pocket…no need to waste the battery.

Anja's cries grew a little more insistent and Sherry glanced around.

She unbuttoned her shirt keeping her ears open and listening into the darkness. Anja nuzzled, latched and quieted.

Sherry did not know how long that would last as she could smell the faint odor of urine and knew a diaper change was going to have to happen soon.

She had just put Anja back securely against her chest when she heard the faint click of a gun next to her right ear.

She turned and for a moment couldn't see who was in front of her. She held up her hand at the light that was being flashed into her face knowing it was pointless to run.

"So you survived the crash." It was the pilot.

Jake stared at the phone in his hand.

 _Sherry._

She had called, or tried to anyway. That meant it was possible she had gotten away. He couldn't imagine Wesker leaving a phone on her. Unless it was a trap. He considered it and then discarded the idea. It did not matter. If it was a trap he was still going to go.

His hand trembled as he stared at the only link to his wife he had at the moment. His other hand curled into a fist as he tried to think of the best way to get to Sherry. He wiped his forehead and looked around for Leon's sparsely decorated desk.

Leon was rarely in the office so his desk looked almost Spartan. They had come here searching for any leads the DSO might have. Leon doing most of the searching with Hunnigan, Jake pacing like a caged tiger.

Jake…Arklay…helicopter….crashed….

He wasn't sure what Arkly meant. Helicopter crash though? She must have gotten away…

"Hero," He said, his voice tremored just a bit and Leon looked up.

"You got something?"

"I think she just tried getting through on her cell phone."

"She still has her phone?" Leon smacked his forehead. "What did she say?"

"There was a lot of static but does 'Arklay mean anything to you?"

Leon froze and his face paled.

"Raccoon City." He looked up at Jake. "I know about where they've taken her, come on we'll get Hunnigan to locate her using her GPS, all our phones have it, it's required. I can't believe we didn't think of it earlier."

Jake whistled appreciating the technology for the first time. Always before he hated it because he was the one having to hide.

Not today.

Leon got up and was moving towards Hunnigans office, located in a different section of their building, he led the way

Jake following close behind trying not to run Leon over in his eagerness to see where Sherry was.

"Hunnigan," he said rushing into her office. "I need a location on Agent Birkin's phone. She made a phone call to Jake."

Hunnigan was still a beautiful woman around the same age as Leon. Her dark hair was pulled back into a professional bun, and the gray had just started to show in it. Her dark skin stood in stark contrast to her pale shirt. Leon had tried asking her on a date once over the phone after a mission. She'd turned him down then, but they got along well.

She hesitated and then snapped forward to her computer and began typing furiously. "You better not be joking." Hunnigan was one of the few agents familiar with Sherry's background. She'd come to admire the younger woman for choosing to join the DSO.

"Don't worry," said Leon, "nothing worse than what I've put you through already."

Hunnigan shot Leon a dirty look complete with an eye roll. "I'll just be happy if there's no repeat of the ESR incident."

Leon schooled his face into a look of innocence when Jake shot him a questioning glance. Not that he cared too much right now. He was more concerned about Sherry's location.

After a few moments that seemed to stretch for an eternity for Jake Hunnigan said, "I've got her."

"Where?" Leon said leaning over her shoulder to stare at the monitor.

Jake crowded to peer over her other shoulder.

"Her signal shows she's in the forest outside the city," Hunnigan said. "If she heads east she'll make it there."

"It's ruins though isn't it?" Said Leon.

Hunnigan shrugged. "I don't know; why would they take her in the first place?"

"Let's go," said Jake, backing away seeing all he needed to see.

"Wait." Said Leon.

"Wait?" Jake snarled. His hands balled into fists. He had a location on Sherry, now was not the time to hesitate.

Leon put both hands up. "Let's gear up first, I've been there before…it was not pretty. And there have been a few incidents since. You don't want to go in unarmed. It won't take long to grab our gear."

Jake hesitated and then nodded seeing the wisdom in the suggestion. The tension left him. "Hurry," was all he replied with.

"Ten minutes and then we're airborne," Leon replied.

 _Sherry we're coming,_ Jake thought as he followed Leon away from Hunnigan's office.

Sherry stared at the end of the gun pointed at her, she could barely see it in the darkness.

The pilot had survived his fall, he had a few scratches on his face and a black eye. Blonde hair framed his face under his nondescript military style helmet. But his cool steady gaze left no doubt who was in charge here.

The smell of smoke still permeated the air growing stronger.

He glanced towards the burning crash glowing in the darkness.

"You have a remarkable talent for surviving, I'll give you that. But I have a job to do. I don't know why they want you so badly but they are paying me generously."

"Who is?" Sherry asked before she could stop herself. She had an idea it was the clone of Albert Wesker, who had actually he thought he and Jake were brothers before he had discovered his real identity. Not that this had upset him. He seemed to relish the idea of being a perfect copy of his father.

"They are also paying me for their anonymity," he flicked his eyes around the dark trees attempting to hide his fear with a shrug. "However I think it is in our best interests to move away from the fire." He pointed behind them where the orange glow was spreading. "You go first."

Sherry nodded and moved forward wrapping her arms around Anja to protect her.

She had recognized the skyline from the air but now that it was dark she was not sure which direction to go accept away from the burning.

Anja stirred against her chest, moving her head, the smoke was definitely growing thicker.

"I've seen a few strange creatures before it got dark," the pilot whispered from behind her. Sherry could hear the strain in his voice. Whatever he had seen terrified him.

"What did you see?" She moved forward in the darkness attempting to follow the light of his flashlight as he scanned it back and forth. Praying the entire time that nothing suddenly jumped forward into the beam.

"Something huge," he admitted. "Maybe ten feet, big foot certainly came to mind. But Big foot doesn't wear pants."

"Pants? Did it see you?" Sherry turned around holding her arm up as the beam cut across her face. He dropped it down quickly. A bad feeling was rising in her chest. Something tall stalking around in the forest…there were only so many things it could be. But only one creature was coming to mind immediately. _Not again._

"You know what it is." It was a statement, not a question. The pilot stared at her.

"I know what it might be," she corrected, not letting him in on the fact that it COULD be a lot of things.

The smoke was thicker now.

"We should run." She said suddenly turning to take off. He did the same, the steady glow was moving faster now. If they couldn't out run it, then... She let the thought trail off as she raised her arms to shield Anja from the brush.

She might survive…Anja might survive. This guy probably wouldn't.

"So, what might it be?" He asked as they moved forward. He was no longer pointing the gun at her but held it out next to him, ready to use on whatever was out there.

She didn't answer. Never had she felt so defenseless as she did right now. Sherry wanted her own gun between whatever monster was lurking out there and Anja. Although in the back of her mind she knew whatever was in the forest right now would never be as bad as what awaited her in one of the labs here.


	9. Chapter 10

"I'm sorry about your loss." Albert Wesker Jr. looked at the older man in front of him who'd worked with his father at some point.

"He wasn't found worthy." Malcom replied looking away. He was having trouble adapting to the clone of Wesker. He knew the much younger man did not yet possess the abilities of the elder. He had all the framework already but none of the experiences that had made Wesker who he was. It was disconcerting to hear him offer condolences.

Albert Wesker would never have done such a thing.

Never.

Malcom took another look around the room again. The younger Wesker clone sat immobilized in his chair, the wires and tubes running and circling his head gave him an almost cyborg appearance. They would all come off eventually healing over as if they'd never been attached.

Malcom hoped for the same abilities. His son had not passed the test, the C-Virus had mutated him there in the hospital. He'd been shot by his own guards.

Malcom had shrugged it off. He was a scientist and they would get the virus to work on whoever they chose. He left the room to allow Wesker's memories time to implant. He had his own plans as well.

Wesker shivered as memories began to surface that weren't his.

Remembering another day when he had used a similar line. _Estella, was that her name?_ The Uroboros Virus had not found her worthy either…she'd mutated into something else entirely.

The sound of it had some sort of religious fervor to it that he found disturbing.

Malcom Derges watched him impassively. He'd sacrificed his son who was dying anyway. He was still willing to go along with the plan.

Wesker thought about what he'd promised the older man. Immortality? The chance to be young again? The youth might be easier to give than Immortality. He smiled to himself. But to give it, the old man would have to die so his clone could live. He wondered briefly how Derges would take that. It didn't matter, it didn't serve his long-term plan anyway.

Derges was a means to an end. That was all.

In the end, Wesker wanted no competition. He would always be on top. He felt the mind meld began to take hold more readily as more memories filled his mind. It was as if another person was being shoved into his head.

 _Wesker Jr's body sat in the chair. The personalities inside of him circled warily, each taking the measure of the other._

 _The younger whose body the elder now resided regarded his creator's memories thoughtfully._

 _"You had a plan for every contingency, it was brilliant, really."_

 _"I know," said the elder Wesker warily. The face changed as each talked. It was a bizarre split personality. "Do you know what will eventually happen?" He said._

 _"Yes," the younger Wesker came back, quite cheerily. "Our personalities will soon meld into one. All my memories will be open to you and all of yours will be open to me. There will no longer be two of us here."_

 _The elder Wesker considered his cloned self. "You've done very well in my absence."_

 _"Thank you," Said the younger._

 _"I see that you've not gotten rid of Ada Wong."_

 _"I sent her after Sherry Birkin."_

 _"Ah," The elder looked through the memories of the event. It was satisfying to see Ada Wong caught off guard for once._

 _He realized the clone of himself had read her perfectly._

 _"She'll bring us Birkin, or at least a sample of her." Said the younger._

 _"You'll need the whole person eventually," Said Albert Wesker. He saw with a shock suddenly Jake Muller in his clone's thoughts._

 _"I have a son." It was a statement, he watched through the memories as Jake Muller battled and cursed his way through each encounter with his clone._

 _"You have more than one," said the Clone sounding smug. The Clone's mind was starting to fade at the same time._

 _Albert Wesker could feel the separation between them starting to vanish. He pulled up more memories readily now as if they were his and he had experienced them himself._

 _"Not as perfect as a clone of myself," he said, "But he's very strong and had a dose of the C-Virus." He grinned. So that had been passed down into the next generation as well. Then a frown came across his features. He'd also had a dose of the Immortality Virus made from mixing the genes between the C- and G-Virus carried by Sherry Birkin._

 _He could see the plans his clone had started. The Clone who'd thought he was his son at the time had decided against his previous experiments, discarding them as too much work. And it had been a lot of work to keep injecting himself at regular intervals. Especially with the enemy constantly on his trail. He shrugged. He was a scientist and it would  
simply be back to the drawing board._

 _He had also been injected with the Immortality Virus. So, had Jake, that put them on equal footing._

 _Wesker did not necessarily relish the idea of having an equal out there. He'd once aspired to godhood. Still Immortality was a step in that direction. He didn't know if it worked really or simply slowed aging._

He realized at that point there was no one inside his own mind with him. His two selves were one.

It was a good plan he had put into place with Malcom Derges. It had worked flawlessly.

 _Ah, Birkin, old friend,_ he thought, _it looks like I'm going to be chasing your daughter down again.  
_  
Then he realized something else. Through the clone's memories he saw that Sherry had been pregnant the last time the Clone had encountered them.

Jake was the father.

He didn't know whether to feel bewildered or laugh out loud at the irony. Jake had started a line for him. It was the perfect opportunity to see if the virus could be passed down to the next generation. Jake obviously had his blood type, but that didn't mean other things would pass along. The clone had been right about one thing. Jake was the perfect test subject and should he not make it, the child would be a good replacement.

Enough time had passed that she would have delivered a child by now. Wesker brought his hands together under his chin as he sat thinking. The clone had made plenty of distractions for him. Wesker was satisfied.

After a few moments, he decided the best plan would be to remind Ada Wong he was back at the helm. Not his son, or his clone, but himself in full control with all the knowledge that he possessed.

The second idea he had was to pull up the files of all the pregnancies he caused. He noted with distaste that his clone had intended impregnating Sherry Birkin himself but there were so many other ways you could do this without the guesswork or the wait. And unlike his clone, he knew where the files were on the offspring that he'd started. Most of them artificially inseminated.

All except the one.

Jake Muller was a natural pregnancy, he had never known it occurred. He studied the face of Jake from memory. The boy had grown up in Edonia, turned into a Mercenary and seemed to have a love of fighting. His mother, Albert remembered, had been a brilliant scientist. He could picture Anja clearly. She'd left sometime before he had gotten involved with STARRS.

He sat up in the chair and keyed in a few codes that let the main Neo-Umbrella systems know he was back.

There were several layers of systems in place to ensure that he or his clone would maintain control, no matter who owned the company now. The memory overlay had worked perfectly. He'd helped Simmons use it to create his own pet Ada Wong, also known as Carla Radames.

The woman had believed for a while that she was indeed the real Ada Wong. But the real Ada, ever resourceful had put that notion down permanently.

Simmons had been obsessed over the woman, and Wesker wondered if he should have just had Ada kill him much sooner. As it was he was dead and no longer an overly ambitious thorn in his side.

He returned to the problem of the grandchild. He could wait a few months he decided. After the birth, he'd take a sample to see if the Virus carried through the next generation. If it had, he didn't mind taking ownership of such genetics.

He would take stock and build up again. Ada had been busy destroying things while he was away. He couldn't fault her for that. It had once been her job to steal from Neo-Umbrella.

But the Immortality Virus as it was, was here…all he would need is a pint. In its current form, it only worked on a handful of people immune to the C-Virus. His clone had been on the right track. The world could be remade that way.  
And if the Virus strains passed down from generation to generation he smiled. They would certainly find out who was truly worthy.


	10. Chapter 11

The fire spread quickly.

Sherry ran like had never run before. Her lungs burned, her legs ached, but her fear for Anja kept her moving. More than once she thought she saw a shape speeding past them as whatever creatures lived in the forest ran for their lives. She hoped none of them were experiments.

Suddenly they burst through a clearing. Sherry glanced around amazed.

Raccoon City had been almost completely demolished.

Rubble lay everywhere, shrubbery grew up between the foundations. Streets, cracked as they yielded back the ground to nature. Cars lay scattered about, rusting carcasses all that remained of the town that Sherry had lived in as a kid.

Suddenly a growl sounded behind them.

"uh…you." Sherry didn't know the pilot's name.

"Andrew," he replied staring straight ahead forgetting for a moment he was supposed to remain anonymous. "Andrew Hardy."

Sherry really did not care what his name was. She just wanted to get his attention. Both of them were focused on the ugliest dog that Neo-Umbrella or anyone could ever have spawned.

Hell hound, thought Sherry as she wrapped an arm around Anja who chose that moment to cry out.

Even the dog froze, blood ooze off of its infected skin. Its gums were a grey pallor. The infected dog was not alone.

As the smoke came closer and the orange flames shot up to the buildings more infected dogs emerged from the trees. And several other things as well.

Sherry almost did a double take as the dogs looked behind them and raced away from the fire with a chorus of howls.

A strelat ran by not even sparing them a glance.

She shot a glance over at Andrew not sure whether their luck would hold. It seemed self-preservation was keeping them from being attacked for the moment. Sherry remembered something Jake had once told her. The mutated creatures were basically animals. The infected however, Zombies, as Jake called them those were something else entirely. They were mindless killing machines, coming after you no matter the danger. The all-consuming need to feast on living flesh was all that drove them.

Anja was screaming against her chest now.

Sherry debated on running away from the pilot but he still had a gun and she was armed only with a squalling infant.

He turned back to her finally. "Well that was amazing…"

His words died on his lips when heavy footsteps sounded over the roar of the flames.

Sherry immediately ducked into one of the buildings, although what cover it was going to provide she had no clue. The fire was loud and crackling now and covered up the sound of Anja's tiny wails. At least Sherry hoped it did. Andrew dropped in next to her and Sherry took Anja out of the carrier and unbuttoned her shirt.

Andrew stared as she bared her breast and hurried grabbed Anja up and stuck her on it and turned away from huddling as close to the concrete ruin as she could get. Anja nursed greedily and Sherry's eyes met Andrew's.

He was no longer looking at her but keeping an eye on the creature that had emerged from the forest.

It was 8 or 9 feet tall, heavily muscled but the drifting smoke was starting to obscure details. Sherry was almost certain it was an Ustanak. The creatures were incredibly smart, although Sherry could not imagine choosing to be one. The last one she fought had been a friend. They were tenacious killers, stalking their prey for weeks on end. They were smart, fast, and loyal to their makers. They killed without mercy and tended to take it personally if you fought back or escaped.

Like the J'avo, she was fairly certain they didn't have much room for speech. Although Devon as an Ustanak had been capable of saying her name.

The fire hit the edge of the forest and began to skip into the brush of the city. The Ustanak was forced to move away. Sherry noticed the flying bugs it sent out. How they alerted the creature to anyone's presence she did not know. But unarmed she certainly wasn't going to set one off now. Jake had been able to smash them into the floor without alerting the Ustanak when they were stuck in the mines with it. But he could actually reach them. Sherry didn't even have a stick to knock them down with.

"What is that thing?" He whispered glancing at her with fear filled eyes.

"Shhhh." Sherry put a finger to her lips and peeked over the edge of the concrete through the brush.

The creature had moved off but was standing still with its head cocked to the side listening.

Suddenly Sherry heard it too. The low sound of helicopter blades coming closer.

Well the forest is on fire, she thought.

Then the helicopter was there and Sherry saw it wasn't a Forest Service helicopter but a US Government helicopter, specifically a DSO unit. She started to leap up and yell when Andrew clamped a hand over her mouth and yanked her back down.

"Are you crazy!" He whispered. "That thing is still right there!"

"How close are we Hunnigan?" Leon said into his phone.

"You should be right on top of her," Hunnigan's voice came out of the phone. Jake and Leon were in the helicopter with Leon piloting, Jake was scanning the ground looking for any signs of his wife.

The forest was on fire which had made tracking the signal difficult. "Let's set it down there just out of range," Leon decided.

Jake didn't bother to respond, he just kept looking suddenly he clamped a hand on Leon's shoulder. "Uh, hero…"

Leon glanced over to his right, there on the ground was another Ustanak. "Damn," he whistled. "How many of those things does this kid have up his sleeve?"

Jake shook his head. If they were right on top of Sherry so was that Ustanak.

"Do we set down?"

Leon shook his head, "not here."

Jake wasn't listening, he was tensed, quite ready to jump out of the helicopter. He already had a parachute strapped to his back, as well as being loaded for world war 3. He had taken pretty much any weapon he could get his hands on before they left. Leon had done the same.

Leon broke him out of his revelry. "Don't even think about it. It's going to take both of us to take that creature down."

Jake nodded but he was impatient. He scanned the ground making an attempt to see in the buildings as Leon moved the helicopter away.

"How long till Claire and Chris get here?" He asked.

Leon shrugged. "Chris can't operate here officially so it's not like he can fly a bird in. Claire's driving…probably another 3 hours."

"In time to clean up the mess." Jake smiled. "He wasn't too happy about it."

"Yeah well getting arrested doesn't help Sherry."

Jake still wondered if there was any way they could have smuggled Chris aboard. Not that he normally needed his help, but with Sherry out there, he didn't the extra hand.

Leon started his descent well away from the Ustanak. They could still see it in the distance. It hadn't moved as the fire drew near it.

Leon set the helicopter down and Jake was out of the chopper as soon as it touched down.

"Forest Service and firemen will be out this way soon to control that fire." Said Leon. "We'd better hurry."

Sherry had watched the helicopter fly away dismayed. Andrew had removed his hand and they had laid low. She had a feeling the Ustanak was either waiting for them to emerge from the trees or already knew they were in the area.

"If they sent that thing after you," she started. "They probably have no intention of giving you any money."

Andrew just sat. He was a hard man to read and Sherry was hoping she was right.

"They said there would be back up." He said finally. "They just weren't very specific. They aren't going to just ditch me anyway. I'm just as important as you are."

He motioned in the direction the helicopter had gone. "Friends of yours?"

"No," She lied, hoping it wasn't too quickly and wondering what he meant. _Just as important? Who was he?_

He smiled then. "They also said you were a pretty good actress." He turned away staring at the Ustanak. He wasn't sure how HE would be received but if it was the back-up then at least it should have been HIS back up.

Sherry sat quietly. Anja had long ago finished nursing and Sherry had wiped her as best she could under the circumstances. Her outer shirt was smeared with a baby poo which discolored it to a bright yellow on top of the grey button up shirt she was wearing.

Andrew had glanced at her and grimaced but said nothing.

There was something familiar about him though. Sherry was having trouble putting it into words. He looked familiar but she was certain they'd never crossed paths before.

Meanwhile the Ustanak waited, the forest burned and there was no sign of rescue.

Although other helicopters started arriving on the scene to put out the fire. Sherry had no idea how many people would see the Ustanak but she surmised that stories of big foot would abound for weeks. Not that the area wasn't supposedly crawling with creatures before. Neo-Umbrella's choice of experiments would make any cryptozoologists wet dreams come true if they weren't created by mutating humans into weapons.

Andrew finally made a decision, he stood up slightly nervous and cupped his hands around his mouth intending to yell at the Ustanak when someone else yelled first. "Hey asshole!"

"Leon!" Sherry was up shoving Andrew from behind as hard as she could she tried running past him.

Andrew hit the dirt hard, but was able to reach out with his hand as he did so.

She saw Leon on the other side of the Ustanak and suddenly felt her ankle being grabbed. She tried rolling to one side as she fell down and barely managed it. Her head hit the ground and she was momentarily stunned. Anja who wasn't crying before was wailing now. The wailing sounded far away as Sherry struggled to stay conscious. She could not black out now.

She turned attempting to wrench her ankle out of Andrew's hands and crawl forward when she saw a blur pounce on him from behind.

Her headache eased and suddenly she saw that it was Jake who was on top of Andrew. He flipped Andrew over like a rag doll and started throwing punches.

Sherry froze and suddenly realized what it was that was familiar about Andrew. He did not have the height that Jake did, but he was a still tall. Maybe 6 ft. But he had the same blue eyes, angled chin. But where Jake was red-headed Andrew was blonde. Jake was hard, and while she wouldn't describe Andrew as soft he certainly did not look as though he'd lived a hard life growing up.

Suddenly from behind Jake came the Ustanak who was no longer distracted by Leon. It yanked Jake off of Andrew by the throat and tossed him. Jake flew twenty feet into Leon who was cursing loudly running to try and head the creature off.

"Jake!" She yelled.

The Ustanak pivoted toward Sherry. She glanced around wildly realizing for the tenth time that day how useless she was. She had an infant strapped to her chest, not to mention the infant's poo was running down her outer shirt. And absolutely no weapons to speak of. She turned and ran, knowing there was no escape from the Ustanak if it decided to charge her.

Gun shots rang out from behind her as she ran deeper into the remains of Raccoon City away from the fire, trying to sooth a wailing Anja at the same time.

She paused and turned just as the creature charged towards Jake. Leon opened fire causing it to hesitate. In turn Jake would fire on it as it charged Leon.

Suddenly it made for Andrew who was still trying to figure out if the creature was on his side. He shrieked and Sherry realized he had never seen any of the experiments, the infected, or any of the creatures Neo-Umbrella worked on. If he was Jake's half-brother, as Sherry suspected he was relatively new to the game plan.

Andrew was groggy, and his face was bloodied from where Jake had punched him. The creature picked him up like a sack of potatoes and slung him over its shoulder. With a quick glance around, it shot off through Raccoon City faster than any of them could run.

Andrew shrieked the whole way.

Sherry listened as his cries lessened when suddenly Jake was wrapping his arms around her. "Sherry we've got to move," he whispered into her hair holding her close. He pulled back. "You kind of smell…"

"I know…" she snapped pulling back to look up at him. He looked so relieved to see her that she did not bother to finish her sentence. He grabbed her hand and followed after Leon who was waiting for them.

Suddenly the flames that had been threatening them the entire time reached Leon's helicopter.

"Well double shit," said Jake despondently. "I brought clothes and diapers for you…they were in there," he motioned helplessly.

"Jake," Sherry started again as they moved. "I think he's your half brother."

Jake came to a dead stop whipping around to stare at her. "You mean another clone?" He scratched the back of his head, then reached up and cupped his face with his hand both actions he subconsciously did when he was seriously thinking.

"No," Sherry replied. "He wasn't a clone, but he's definitely a Wesker, he gave his name as Andrew Hardy. He's a pilot, I'm not sure how involved he is, he was too surprised at the appearance of the B.O.W. And the dogs also were new to him."

"Dogs?" said Leon. He came closer, he wrinkled his nose at the smell but didn't comment otherwise. Anja was the closest thing he was ever going to have to a grand-daughter and he wasn't about to make Sherry feel bad because of the mess she was covered in.

"Great," said Leon. "I hate the dogs. Worse than the lickers, how did you get away?"

"They ran from the fire," Sherry explained shivering. Suddenly she glanced around them. Orange coloring from the fire had started dancing around in her eyes. Flames they had barely noticed with the Ustanak around were suddenly the biggest threat.

"Well," Jake muttered. "Why does this feel like de ja vu?"

"China again," Sherry pulled Anja out of the carrier. "Is there water at least nearby? Leon do you remember?"

Leon glanced around, "There's a lake that way. But it's dark, we need to take shelter while I radio in back up."

He glanced around. "Any basements in these buildings?"

Sherry tensed, there were plenty of underground portions of the city, and she was sure she wasn't ready to go back into them.

Jake who had never been to Raccoon City before and was not privy to its history in the close and personal way that Leon and Sherry were, only shrugged. "Lead the way."

His only concern was to get them to a safe location and then they could clean up the mess. He had grown up as a mercenary so he'd seen a lot worse than an infant who was diaper-less.

"Want me to carry her?" He asked Sherry gently.

Sherry nodded and took off her gray shirt, this she wrapped around Anja and set her in Jake's arms. She took the carrier off of herself and strapped it around Jake who grimaced at the smell but otherwise said nothing. "Sorry it's a mess." She whispered.

Jake's arm suddenly wrapped around her and pulled her close. "Enough about the mess. I thought I lost both of you." He said into her ear.

Leon's voice interrupted him. "If you two could quick making googly eyes at each other, we should get under cover. That thing will be back…not to mention who knows what else is out here. And there's a fire, which you all might survive, but I definitely wouldn't." It was one of the few references Leon made to their ability to heal as a result of being experimented on. Jake's jaw clenched but Sherry only gave Leon a small smile.

"Welcome home," Sherry said sarcastically glancing around shivering in her black tank top.

"Yeah really," Leon replied rolling his eyes. Raccoon City was the city where he had his first job as a cop. The city had been besieged by the infected on his first day. And he had survived. His job now was to go in and wipe them out.

"Andrew said he was important," Sherry interrupted Leon's thoughts.

Jake who still had an arm around her shoulders looked down at her. "What? Why?"

"I don't know," she replied. "Only he said they wouldn't leave him out here…and the Ustanak carried him off."

Jake pulled her forward by the hand running with her behind him. It was completely dark, they could hear helicopters in the distance battling the wildfire but it had started to rain. Not a heavy rain but still helpful. Anja bundled as she was in the carrier on Jake's chest was only getting her toes wet. The rest of the group was not so lucky.

They moved quickly at a jog until they came to what used to be an office building. Leon pointed to the stairs going down with the door at the bottom. It was a basement which would offer some cover until dawn.

They moved down and Jake opened the door covering Leon as he stepped inside. There wasn't much to the room. It was open and away from the rain at least.

"I'll take first watch," said Leon. He closed the door and sat near it pulling out his phone. He pulled out the phone and noticed there was no signal. "Of course," he muttered. Hunnigan would realize at some point they were out of range.

He hoped. At least Chris and Claire were on their way but how they were going to find them was anybody's guess. And there was the issue of the new kid. Andrew. Whoever, whatever he was. Leon hadn't gotten a good look at him, but something about him bothered Sherry.

He glanced over at Jake. The kid had left his daughter sleep on his chest and Sherry lay dozing against him as well. He had one arm around her shoulders.

He was thinking, Leon realized. Jake stared into space, an angry line across his forehead.

"Hey, you ok?" He whispered.

"That guy got away." Jake muttered.

"We'll see," said Leon. "I have the feeling we're going to see him again soon. Besides we have to get ourselves out of here."

Jake shifted slowly so he could see Leon better. "Sherry thinks he's my half brother. A real one this time. We talked about this, but think about it. Look what they did to me, what would happen if they had how many people out there with those abilities _working for Neo-Umbrella…or just Wesker himself_."

Leon hesitated. He'd seen more than enough things to know that Jake was not being irrational.

"And he wants Sherry." Jake finished. "He won't even leave her alone."

Leon thought about this. "Maybe he can't make a clone of Sherry…or he can't reproduce the G-Virus."

"Or maybe he doesn't want competition." Jake looked around, his arm had automatically tightened around Sherry. He hated Wesker once again. "You know, Sherry is a good person in spite of everything she went through." Jake paused. "And me, I wasn't. I quite caring about everything. She brought me back."

"Yeah, yeah she made you want to be a better man." Leon smiled.

"I wouldn't say she made me better, but she did make me care." Jake looked down at Sherry who was now sleeping deeply.

Leon didn't say anything. He didn't have to. He was hoping Chris and Claire would be in the area soon. They would have been hampered by the fire, and no doubt Claire would be sick with worry by now.

"Get some sleep." Said Leon. "Tomorrow we'll have to get out of here without running into anything resembling your worst nightmare."

Jake nodded. "Was this the place where everything went down when she was a kid?"

This time it was Leon who nodded.

"I hate irony," Jake muttered.

 _So do I, rookie_ , Leon thought.

Ten faces stared up at Wesker. He had their complete attention. 5 men, 5 women. Each aged by successive year. The eldest pair were 30, the youngest 20. There were others, but they had not been found and brought here yet.

They were all races and nationalities, Wesker had originally mixed his DNA to combine with several women who worked under him, this he had done without their knowledge. They were never going to raise these children so why burden them with the knowledge. His test tube generation he had called them.

Originally they were designed with his genetics in mind. They would have the same gifts he did, but after dealing with the failure of Uroburos, the younger Wesker decided that the combined Immortality Virus would have to wait. He would give them the C-virus to make them stronger and faster, but there still needed to be someone on top.

They all had similar traits. Wesker had ensured they would definitely have a family resemblance. They all had his cold blue eyes. They all had succeeded in demanding careers were driven to be as fit as possible.

He stared at them, many seeing the resemblance, a few nervous about what was going on. Most had been "brought" against their will.

"Hello family," he said. Most of them stiffened. He had a lot of explaining to do. He noted with satisfaction there was at least one scientist in the group who listened to him with fascinated eyes. Man were shocked, a few did not believe him. It didn't matter, they would in the end. They were Wesker's after all.

He took out a knife and was met with silence as he calmly rolled up his sleeve and placed the tip into his skin. "This is what you are all capable of," he drew it into the skin and sliced down leaving an opening.

There were gasps and then another moment of shocked silence as his arm closed back over. "This," said Wesker, walking amongst them, "Is your inheritance."

Jake opened his eyes, Sherry was laying across his lap nursing Anja. She'd rewrapped the shirt to keep the messy side away from Anja's bared skin _. They really were going to have to get a shower for them both. All three of us,_ he corrected, as he noted the line of poop down his leg.

Sherry looked up. "Sorry." She said, "I was going to get that, I just haven't yet."

"Eh, a little shit never hurt anything," Jake said shrugging. He put a hand on her shoulder. He'd woken up with both of them in the night and stayed awake four hours so Leon could sleep.

Leon was sitting across the room for them checking his weapons.

"We should get moving soon," Jake said softly. "I like my odds better when I can see."

Sherry nodded. "I need a gun, anything you can spare?"

Jake nodded. He had an extra 9mm that he now handed over to her. Sherry sat up and buttoned up her shirt. She felt grimy, wishing she could have a shower. She caught Jake's stare and realized that while she was wishing for a shower, he was wishing they were alone. She blushed and he reached over and grabbed her chin tilting it up he planted a kiss on her face.

"When you're ready." Leon's voice broke them apart, but he was smiling.

"Don't mind him," said Jake grinning. "He's just jealous." But he stood up still holding Anja, and slipping the carrier onto himself.

"Now you all smell." Leon smiled. He'd give Jake a hard time about it later.

He opened the door and headed up the stairs gun out in front of him. The air smelled vaguely of smoke and humidity and while the area was slightly charred the fire had not spread as far into the ruins of Raccoon City as he thought it might. Jake came out next behind him and Sherry followed.

They looked around. It was a bright sunny day, perfect for camping if that's what they had been there for.

"Careful," Sherry said scanning the area. "Yesterday there were infected dogs here. You remember what they were like Leon?"

"Yeah," Leon respond keeping his own weapons handy.

"How did you scare them off?" Jake asked keeping his own eyes open.

"We didn't, the fire did." Sherry didn't say how grateful she'd been for the forest fire.

"So that guy couldn't have been that great of a pilot," Jake muttered.

"Oh, about that," Sherry felt her face turn red. "That's kind of my fault."

Leon and Jake both stared at her, mouths agape.

"You caused the crash?" Jake was suddenly looking at her in way that suggested he really wished they were alone again.

She was crimson now.

Leon stared at her with some awe on his face. "How did Anja not get injured?"

"I'm not sure really," Sherry replied. "She was strapped to my chest when we went down…I ended up suspended in the air for a bit, climbed down. And then I tried calling you…and after got apprehended by the pilot."

"Well don't let anyone suggest you don't belong in the DSO," Leon moved ahead.

"Damn super girl," Jake came up next to her and took her hand again.

They started moving though the ruins of Raccoon City. Leon kept the lead for a few minutes. "I'm kind of expecting company. They have an Ustanak, I wouldn't be surprised if they can see us."

He pointed to a small camera that was barely noticeable.

"I wouldn't have seen it." Sherry said. Jake said nothing but he lifted his glock and shot at the camera, destroying it. Anja sta. rted to cry.

"Bit dramatic," Leon said moving on. "Can you get her quiet again, if there are infected dogs out here, that's not helping."

Jake shrugged but walked forward soothing Anja at the same time. She quieted as he moved. He was going to have to control his recklessness, he thought. At least with Anja strapped to his chest. Sherry would kill him if the infected dogs did not.

They moved into the trees.

"Hear that?" Jake said. Sherry and Leon nodded. They heard nothing, no birds, no insects, the area had gone completely silent.

"Got company," Leon scanned the ruined city.


	11. Chapter 12

A sudden explosion knocked them all to the ground. Sherry could feel her ears ringing as she tried to hear but everything was convoluted and muffled. Her face was plastered into the dirt as she pulled herself up. _Jake, Anja!_ She tried calling out for them but all that came out was a dirt filled croak, she coughed struggling to get the dirt out of her mouth and lungs. Blood tinged her vision. Her head was clearing but that was making the pain more vibrant. Her healing didn't work as fast as she would like. Something was broken.

Jake had Anja on his chest when he'd been knocked back. He landed flat on his back with Leon's legs pinned underneath him. He felt rough hands pushing him down and his hazy vision made out a face with at least four eye balls more than it should have had. They were all located in the wrong places. He felt Anja's weight leave his chest and when the hands began to pull him up he swung into action.

Grabbing the closest J'avo he pulled it towards him and punched it the face. It's face crunched in and Jake didn't need to look again to know that it was going to stay down.

He glanced around frantically for Anja or Sherry but couldn't see either. The J'avo pressed in around them when suddenly gun shots rang out. Those closest to Jake were hit, and Jake was suddenly glad that Leon was a superb marksman, because if they mutated here and now they were much too close to Jake for comfort.

"You going to shoot them in the head, or wrestle with them all day," Leon's voice sounded behind him.

Jake snatched a gun out of his side holster angry at himself for letting Sherry and Anja to be taken. The J'avo were backing off. Jake pulled Leon off the ground where he was lying and they both ducked behind a large oak.

Bullets flew around them pinning them in place.

"Shit they took her," Jake was really getting tired of his wife disappearing. He still had Anja strapped to his chest. They were both hiding behind a tree as a barrage of bullets pinned them down.

"Getting yourself killed won't help her get away." Leon said.

"No," Jake replied, "but maybe getting captured might."

"Don't-!" Leon tried grabbing Jake who only shrugged him off.

"I'm open to suggestions," Jake glared at him.

Suddenly the gunfire ceased.

"Jake," A voice spoke that Jake was really starting to hate. He put his forehead against a tree and closed his eyes as the voice grated on his nerves.

"You can join us." Wesker was still there talking.

"And if I don't?"

"I'll have no choice but to execute you. Sherry is staying with me no matter what."

Jake tensed.

Leon glanced up at him. "Knock me out."

"What?"

"Do it, do whatever you have to. Get on their team. Knock me out."

Still Jake hesitated. While it was true he'd never held a gun to Leon's head like he'd done with Redfield he still didn't want to punch Leon. He actually liked the guy. Now if it had been Redfield standing here saying hit me, he would have done it with no hesitation.

"Claire is going to shoot me now."

"I'll handle Claire."

Jake nodded. He came out into the opening with his gun up and Leon next to him.

"Any day now, Rookie," Leon snapped holding his own hands up.

They were both perfectly visible when Jake suddenly socked Leon in the jaw, which snapped up as Leon crumbled. Jake winced when he heard the snap but he knew Leon would wake up later with a horrible headache but he would be alive and if all went well in the next five minutes, free.

Wesker walked closer. Behind him Jake could see Sherry staring in shock. He stared at her for a moment pleading with her to trust him. He knew she couldn't hear him.

"He stays," Jake said motioning to Leon lying unconscious at their feet.

Wesker nodded.

"You realize Jake that you are possibly the most dangerous B.O.W. here." He accentuated each letter watching as Jake flinched. Wesker lowered his voice. "But you already know that, don't you?"

Jake just stared at him but he said nothing. He fists clinched but he forced them to relax. Wesker's voice grated on his nerves. The idea that he potentially was going to be listening to this man for the next few weeks was unnerving. He assumed it would be a few weeks.

Wesker nodded and then pointed to the waiting helicopter. "Come with us."

Andrew Hardy stared back at Jake from behind Sherry a hand on her arm and a gun to her head. The Ustanak was back there as well.

When Jake started to go to Sherry, Wesker's voice stopped him. "We'll take separate helicopters…for now. Just to be sure you are on your best behavior. We don't want Ms. Birkin to accidently disappear again."

"Muller," Jake muttered.

"What was that?" Wesker said.

"Her name is Sherry Muller." He then turned towards the other helicopter.

Jake said nothing but sat across from the Ustanak of all creatures. He stared at it and looked towards Sherry.

They were taking another helicopter. The creature in front of him stared alternatively at the country side and back at him. Jake having killed one before found his nerves frayed now. He kept his eyes glued on the helicopter with Sherry and Anja riding in it.

Leon had said to do what he had to, but he honestly couldn't figure a way out of this.

And he still needed to keep his sanity somehow.


	12. Chapter 13

Jake came to see Sherry around noon. They'd kept Anja with her but kept them both locked up in a comfortable room. She was guarded by the Ustanak for "her own protection." Andrew Hardy the pilot who'd originally taken her from Jake also kept a close eye on her but made sure to stay out of Jake's path.

It was also the only way to insure Jake's "good behavior."

"Jake?" Sherry almost couldn't believe it was him.

"You didn't think I was going to leave you alone here?" He grabbed Sherry and pulled her close, breathing her in. Anja was snoozing in the crib provided. He put a hand on his daughter's head while keeping a firm grip on Sherry.

"No," She whispered into his chest, trembling. "They've already been here and drawn blood from both of us. What is happening?"

"Leon said to do what I had to," Jake replied. "So right now I'm blending in."

"Take Anja and leave."

"I'm not leaving you."

"Please Jake, I'm not like the rest of you…I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. I don't have the C-virus antibodies. Sooner or later they'll be done with me. You two have a better chance."

"Not like me?" Jake recoiled like he'd been slapped. Up until that moment Sherry was the only person he considered like himself. Certainly not Wesker and his ilk. Even if they shared the same DNA. He had told Sherry when they were trapped in the underwater facility that he was not like his father and he was going to make sure that it stayed that way.

"I didn't mean you were just like them." Sherry said stepping toward him holding her hands out. "Please Jake, I'm not going to survive whatever they've got planned. I'm just an experiment here. You and Anja though, you have to get her out."

Jake stared at her. The phrase "not like the rest of you," was still ringing in his ears. Sherry had to know how much that hurt.

"Stay here and I'll figure something out," He backed away, turned and fled from the room.

Sherry stood and stared at the closed door. She didn't know what else to do so she walked over to the bed and curled up into it and started to cry.

Jake emerged into the hallway only to run into Wesker. "How did you find your accommodations?"

"Those are mine?"

"I figured you'd want to share a room with Ms. B—I mean Mrs. Muller." Wesker spread out his hands. "We aren't the enemy here Jake. I just need Sherry's DNA. She's free to remain in the facility. But I need both of you."

Jake said nothing. He'd listened to this guy before, but last time he was strapped to a table. He wasn't inclined to believe anything he said.

"We've been working on making the virus stronger," said Wesker turning away from him. "And we did it, but we can't replicate Mrs. Muller's sample."

Jake's curiosity was piqued. "Why not?"

Wesker's expression remained placid. "I don't know. I was hoping she could tell me, maybe she knows something her father did. But for now, we'll just have to keep studying her and Anja."  
Jake tensed. "She's not your guinea pig."

Wesker held up his hands. "No but right now she is the key unlocking the original G-virus. Her father out did himself there."

"You tried bringing him back?" Jake was being sarcastic, but something crossed Wesker's face before he smoothed it over again. Jake caught it. "You did…."

"Follow me, Jake." He turned on his heel. They went on a long path into another facility. Jake glancing around memorizing every detail. Through an open door a long hallway into a lab.

A man in a lab coat stood there. He stood gazing into a cage where a J'avo stood. He turned to Wesker.

"Albert, you found this? This is incredible," he stopped when he noticed Jake who tensed.

"It is," agreed Albert. "Have you gotten the samples of the G virus I gave you?"

"Yes, I did, I still don't understand how it was lost. How long was I in the hospital? Was all of our work destroyed?"

"No, but we've come a little ways while you were out." He put a hand on the clone of Sherry's father's shoulder. "I'm sorry about Annette and Sherry, William."

William Birkin, or rather his clone studied Jake before turning back to Wesker again. "I wish I knew who was responsible…."

"We'll find them." Wesker said. "I was just showing one of our newbies around."

William again turned to Jake looking up at him. "Are you a scientist?"

"Mercenary," Jake responded shortly. He couldn't believe this was Sherry's father. Or what he looked like.

At 'Mercenary' William dismissed Jake and turned back to Wesker. "You want me to combine the samples?" He was completely involved in his work. Jake despised him already.

He couldn't be Sherry's father. She was nothing like him. Jake studied the light brown hair that reached

William's ears. His lab coat and gray pants underneath. It all screamed scientist to Jake.

"First work on replicating the sample."

"I know you said it was the G-virus, but it's different," said Birkin.

"It has mutated." This time it was Wesker who tensed slightly.

"Can I see the host?" Birkin's excitement level was rising.

Jake felt his anger growing with each word. He glanced over at the tank with the J'avo inside. The J'avo that used to be a man. It stared out of its cylindrical cage and Jake knew that if released and ordered it would fight him to the death. Mutating the whole way until it was no longer recognizable as human. Its one right in the original place but it's other eye on the forehead, and a myriad of small eyes all thanks to the new C-Virus.

Birkin had no problem with the fact that this was once a man. _Hell_ , Jake thought, _he probably injected the virus into the man himself._

Jake suddenly had a flashback to an argument he'd had with Sherry when they were escaping an underwater Neo-Umbrella facility. _I'm not my father_ , he'd told her vehemently. _And I'm going to make damned sure that it stays that way. We're getting out of here, and you're going to save the world._

And she had. And she saved him too.

So what was he doing here in this lab, upset at her for what she had said earlier. He knew she would never think she was truly like Wesker. Shame washed over him when he remembered how he had simply run and left her trapped in that room with Anja. He should be finding a way out of here. Not standing here speaking with the ghost of her father.

His eyes flicked up to catch Birkin staring at him. He had been deep in thought and was not paying attention to their conversation. _Way to go,_ Jake, he thought. _Supposed to be figuring out what was going on._

"I said are you a relative of Albert's?" Jake was taken back and wasn't sure how to respond. Albert grinned at him.

"He is," said Albert lifting an eye brow at Jake.

"Distant." Jake said at the same time. He still couldn't figure out what to do with this information.

"We won't disturb you any longer," said Wesker. "I'll have plenty of C-Virus antibodies at your disposal soon."

"And the G-Virus host?" Birkin voice was hopeful. Jake clenched his fists together. He himself was carrying the mixed C and G viruses.

"I'll work on getting it." Said Wesker.

 _It, he means her_. Jake's expression was dark as he followed Wesker out of the labs again.

"Do you think Sherry will cooperate once she's seen her father?" Wesker asked once they were outside. He was still walking in front of Jake, and all the pent up rage Jake was feeling spilled over. He grabbed Wesker from behind and shoved him against the wall.

Wesker held up a hand to a guard who tried coming to his rescue even with Jake's hands pinning him to the wall. "What was that?" Jake snarled into his face.

"William Birkin, he was truly a genius, another mind gone too soon. I'm glad we decided on the memory overlays even if he spent most of his time obsessing over the G-Virus." Wesker's composure did not waver.

"And you are just going to let him take Sherry." It was a statement.

"Not if she cooperates willingly." Wesker said. "Birkin may be the only mind who can figure out a way to replicate the virus. The original host unfortunately is long dead."

"Things that are long dead should stay that way." Jake responded stepping back. He released his grip on Wesker and strolled up the hallway alone. He didn't want anything else but Sherry and Anja right now. The J'avo in the cylindrical container flashed in his mind again. There was no sound coming from the tube. It was completely soundproofed he realized. Sherry could sit in there and yell at her father for hours and he would never hear her. Worse, he'd be the one to experiment on her.

He ran to their room and burst into the door.

"Sherry—" He skidded to a halt. She was asleep on the bed with Anja laying next to her. He stared at them. How did he tell her.

 _Your father has been cloned._

 _He's working on the G-Virus again._

 _They're not going to let you go without a fight._

He moved closer and noted her cheeks were streaked with tears. Those were his fault, he remembered fleeing the room earlier. He reached out to touch her arm but hesitated. Did he even deserve her after this?

Sherry opened her eyes suddenly seeing Jake reached for him with a speed that surprised him. "Oh my god, Jake!" She pulled him down and hugged herself into his chest as his arms automatically wrapped around her.

"Sherry," he whispered her name into her hair. "I saw someone…and…"

"Who?" She tensed against his chest.

"They made a clone of…" He hesitated. He really didn't want to say it out loud.

"Who is it?" She pulled back and looked up at him. Her eyes told him she was already suspicious. "It's my father isn't it."

Jake nodded, catching her as she slumped against him.

"Why him?" She gasped. "Didn't he do enough damage for one lifetime?"

"His research killed him." Jake said, remembering what Sherry had told him before.

"Yes," She whispered as he held her. "Only after he injected himself with it, and then me. The only thing that mattered to them, him was that Virus. He can't be…" She stopped herself and simply sat there trembling as Jake's arms tightened around her.

Here they were back at the Arklay laboratory. Jake hoped that Leon was coming with some sort of plan. He seriously did not know how they were going to get out of this.


	13. Chapter 14

Leon felt a hand on his forehead.

"Ada?" He asked seeing the figure leaning over him.

"Not even close." Claire's voice colored with amusement came back.

Leon reached out and gripped her arm. "How did you find me?"

"Well you have both yours and Jake's trackers on you." Chris's voice came from the right. "It was pretty easy. Where's Jake?"

Claire pulled Leon up into a sitting position before resting him against a tree.

"He was taken," He glanced at Claire wondering how to explain fully. Claire who had been watching him lifted an eyebrow.

"I sense a but in there…"

"They took Sherry first; we were overwhelmed by J'avo after rescuing her. We had to hide in a basement from the fire."

"Yeah we couldn't get in because of that." Chris pulled out a water canteen and handed it to Leon.

"When we got out we didn't make it very far. We had her…." Leon paused to take a drink.

"And then the J'avo showed up. They took her, Wesker's clone was there. Trying to get Jake to join…"

"He went." Claire's voice was flat.

"He had to." Leon responded glancing at her. "They had Sherry. He said he would execute us but he was taking Sherry anyway."

Claire only sighed but Chris nodded. He had seen Jake protect Sherry even before realizing how close they were.

"Anyway, I told him to hit me…"

"HE did this?" Claire was surprised again.

"I told him to…"

"He didn't want to do this either I suppose."

"No," Leon's voice was firm. "He didn't."

"Ok enough," Chris had heard enough. "What is our next move?"

"It's here," Leon said twisting to look around. Most of the place had been burned out, surprisingly there were a lot of trees still standing, charred but standing. He hadn't noticed it yesterday when those explosions had gone off.

Chris grabbed his arm and assisted him to his feet.

"It's here," he repeated himself. Chris nodded.

"Why would they come back here?" Claire asked.

"Sentimentality?" Leon grunted. His head ached. He'd get Jake back later. Right now he had better be working on the best way to make Jake look like he wasn't a traitor. He suspected Claire was going to be the hardest to convince. But he wasn't sure how Hunnigan, or even the higher ups back at the DSO would take this.

"Chris can you even be here?" Leon asked looking over at him.

"I'm on vacation," said Chris grinning. He was armed to the teeth.

"You pick the worst vacations," Leon said grinning.

"The way I hear it, so do you." Chris laughed.

"Glad you're here anyway, my helicopter kind of roasted in that fire before we could get back to it."

"Won't your boss be mad?" Claire said.

"I've got a running tab…" Leon started.

The burned out forest wasn't giving them too many clues to work with.

Jake's ears caught the sound of nails on glass before anyone else did. He snapped his neck towards the tube with the first Neman inside it. He could have sworn the creature again winked at him but he was to disturbed by the crack in the base of the tube.

The Ustanak had a firm grip on his arm almost painfully wrenching as Birkin drew another sample of his blood. Jake had submitted knowing Sherry was still in trapped in the room. She might heal but she could still feel pain. He never doubted that Wesker would hurt Sherry for a second. After all he'd put a knife to Jake's throat and cut it in front of Sherry. Jake had at that point understood exactly why Sherry had so many nightmares after her experience in China.

His eyes flicked away from the glass as he wondered briefly where the rest of the Nemans were. Wesker had most of the offspring and the transformation process had gone so terribly wrong they'd been sedated right away and put into secure holding. Jake had not been allowed to see that.

Oddly enough Wesker was still trying to convince him that he needed to be on his side.

"Creating a world truly worth myself and those like me is worth the sacrifices I'm making."

"Well aren't you just full of good old fashion altruism." Snapped Jake. _All those people turned into whatever they were?_

"If you truly understood what I was doing you would be helping me, not hindering me," Wesker said not turning around.

"Kidnapping my wife and child? No fuck you." Jake replied, his hands balling into fists. The Ustanak's grip tightened painfully under his arm. Birkin didn't say a word. He was in his own world.

"One for the good of the rest is a burden placed on some people."

"Only because of bastards like you." Jake said. He paused, not really caring what Wesker said or did, only studying the room. Leon had said to give him time to get around so that's what he was going to do. Even if that meant he had to listen to Wesker prattle on all day.

This time Wesker did turn around and gave Jake a studied measuring look. Jake stared back, equally defiant.

"Jake, I understand that you might hate me, but in this new world I'm creating…someone like you and Sherry would be welcome. You've already proven yourself worthy by surviving the C-Virus. Intentional or not you are here."

"In chains?"

"No, with me you'll be free to walk around."

"And my wife?" He glanced over at Birkin for a moment who had taken out a microscope and was studying the contents across the room.

"I need her DNA."

"Why?"

Wesker hesitated. "Her combination is unique, like I said before." He made a motion and the Ustanak dropped Jake's arms. Jake remained where he was. Waiting, listening. Wesker took this for a small amount of compliance before continuing on. "Like I said before, I don't know if it's just her or the circumstances under which she acquired it."

There was a loud crack suddenly.

Jake groaned, even the Ustanak dropped his arm and stepped away.

The tube where the Neman was trapped in was shattered.

Wesker's eyes narrowed and he glanced at Birkin. "I thought you said those were impenetrable."

"They are," said Birkin backing away. "Bullets can't get through."

The glass shattered as the creature shoved its way out in a way that suggested it had just about enough of being trapped.

Outside it stretched to its full height. Even taller than the Ustanak, which was 9 feet, it wasn't nearly as wide. The teeth resembled sharp pointed needles within an enlarged jaw with an opening that split the creatures face in half. The eyes were jet black with no iris that was visible. The fingers carried retractable claws which pulled back in with a snap as it moved with surprising speed and grace to the computers.

Ignoring every human in the room it moved to the computer and squatted in front of it rippling it's muscles under the dark gray skin as it did so.

Jake like everyone else in the room looked up at monstrousity in front of them but was the first to come out of the trance.

Even the Ustanak had backed off the creature. _Is it actually trembling?_ Jake thought as he backed behind the Ustanak towards the door. He looked towards Wesker and noticed him doing the same. Even Birkin had managed to move towards the exit.

Although Birkin looked like he was going to be sick and was holding his stomach.

So far the Neman hadn't made a single threatening move towards anyone in the room, however it was a nightmare to look at.

If Jake hadn't been so thoroughly affected by loose B.O.W.s in his own life he probably would be standing in the lab still.

He was suddenly slipping out of the doors quietly, and when his back hit the wall he started running for Sherry's cell as fast as he could. All hell was about to break loose.

"Jake, wait!" Wesker was running behind him, Birkin following closely. Oddly enough the Ustanak was behind them both.

The screaming had started in the lab. Followed by thumps that Jake knew were bodies hitting the wall. A high pitch screech erupted in the same room.

"He let them out." Birkin said puffing behind Wesker.

"Let WHO out?" Jake asked even though he already knew the answer. His only course of action now was to get Anja and Sherry out of here.

"The rest of the Nemans." Wesker supplied.

"Honestly," Jake ranted. "You think you would have learned your lesson by now. This shit doesn't work. Quit while you're ahead."

"Ah but it does," Wesker said. "There's always some risk involved in-"

"Save it," Jake snapped. "I'm getting Sherry and Anja away from those things."

"Sherry?" Birkin said turning pale. "My Sherry? My daughter, I thought you said she was dead."

They had stopped running outside of Sherry's door.

"She's the G-Virus carrier?" He rounded on Wesker. "How? What happened?" He turned to Jake. "And YOU let YOUR son marry my daughter?"

"Let is such a strong word," Jake said yanking the door open.

"Jake?" Sherry practically flew into his arms. "What's going on? The alarms are going off and there's a contamination?"

"Oh that's just code for loose creature." Wesker said coming in behind Jake. The guards who had been posted outside her door had locked it and run per procedure. "This will make it easier to extract us from here at least."

"Us?" said Jake, "Oh no, I'm not going anywhere with you bastards," He shoved Wesker away from Sherry.

Sherry was staring at Birkin. "Dad?"

"Sherry?" Birkin couldn't quite get over the fact that this was his daughter. "How many years has it been exactly?" He rounded on Wesker again.

"A few," Wesker admitted. "William we really need to get out of here."

Birkin moved forward with his arms open, Jake was about to move forward when Sherry moved towards him but instead of the hug he thought he was going to get she made a fist and punched him. "Don't you dare." She hissed at him as Anja started crying.

"You're the reason I'm in this mess."

"What do you mean?" Birkin said rubbing his jaw.

"YOU injected me, after you injected yourself. Where were you? What 15 years ago? Obsessing over your virus? It got you killed…and now you're going to just do it again?" Sherry stopped suddenly. "I've been chased and kidnapped by these people, because of YOU."

Jake put his arms around her. "Sherry, if you want to hit him again, now is not the time. We kind of need to get Anja out of here."

She stopped and struggled to get her emotions together.

"Perhaps if Ms. Bir- Muller needs a moment we can pack a diaper bag."

Jake had his arms wrapped around Sherry. "I got it," he said coldly eyeing them both with disdain. He wanted to go hide in a corner himself. If they weren't both standing here in front of him he wouldn't have believed that Sherry's father or his own father were standing here in the same room working together.

He released Sherry and moved toward the bed seeing a full backpack sitting there. "I packed it already," Sherry said, not looking at Birkin.

"Sherry," Birkin tried again.

"Don't," she said. "You're not him. My father is dead, and he needs to stay that way."

Birkin backed away slowly. Wesker eyed him with wariness. "If it makes you feel any better. Jake said something similar to me as well."

"Yes because you're both such doting fathers, you'll make wonderful grandparents. Now fuck off," Jake snapped as he strapped Anja to his chest.

"I'm sorry," Birkin whispered, paler still. He clutched his stomach again.

Wesker moved to his side. "William what did you do?" His voice was too calm. Jake hated it.

"I used the plaga sample we had." Birkin couched again. "cultivated it for weeks when I was waiting for the G-virus carrier to get here." He looked at Sherry, "I didn't know it was you."

"And?"

"I took half, and gave the other half to the Neman."

"Just one?" Wesker was interested.

"Just the one," said Birkin.

"So in theory, you can control one?" Wesker said.

"In theory," Birkin said.

"Speak English or something I can get behind," Jake broke into their conversation wearing a baby strapped to his chest and a back pack full of supplies for her on his back. He looked completely out of place that Sherry laughed before covering her mouth with her hand.

"I'm sorry," she said ignoring the other two men, "Let's just get out of here."

"We're kind of weaponless at the moment," Jake replied looking over at Wesker, "what have you got here?"

A shrill cry rang out in the hallway behind them suddenly. Wesker flew to the panel and entered a code. The locks engaged from the inside out. Now nothing outside was getting in.

"Are you kidding me?" Jake said grudgingly. "You had us in a safe room?"

The pounding on the walls that suddenly erupted outside the door closed all of their mouths. The screeching of the nails across metal suddenly sounded deliberately.

They were being taunted.

"Don't worry about rescuing anyone else," Wesker said from near the door. "Judging by those creatures abilities, they're all dead."

* * *

The ground shook as the explosions shook the Arklay Forest. Leon stumbled against the closest tree in front of him. Claire and Chris were doing the same.

"Some vacation, huh, Chris?"

Chris only laughed. "Looks like we're heading the right direction at least."

Leon nodded. The forest was burned in patches. Gray dust was stirring up obscuring some of their vision.

"So the facility is underground?" Claire asked from behind them both.

"Probably near the mansion, I understood the one that was located under the city was already destroyed." Chris shuddered. His experiences at the mansion had caused he and later his sister to dedicate their lives to combating bio organic weapons. _Were they ever going to win?_

He pushed the thought out of his head and followed Leon, crunching their way through the burned out woods.

Suddenly a growling sound came from behind them. When Chris turned around he caught a glimpse of gray fur, bloodied, pieces of skin falling in tatters. It looked to be an infected wolf. He had run into infected dogs before and hate them. This was straight out of a nightmare.

What had once been a beautiful Arklay Mountain wolf was rapidly losing its fur and becoming a blood stained toothy monster. It's sunken eyes were gray tinged with red as if they were transforming. The creature was frightening enough but then again another sound turned his blood cold and he turned around again his gun raised.

A high pitched call sounded. Leon heard it and knew it wasn't going to be something cute or fuzzy that would save the day.

"Shit…." Leon started as Claire gasped.

In front of them stood a creature that was taller than an Ustanak, but leaner and more lithe. It appeared to stand at least 10 feet tall. Its dark gray skin stretched over muscles, over which hung the tattered remains of clothes. Clothes that were the only testament to the fact that it used to be a man of sorts. The teeth were needle point and set in a jaw that split half of the head opened it opened its mouth and let out another all. The black eyes scanned them and the hands that hung at its sides clenched with a popping sounds as claws popped from the ends of the fingers. It crouched low in front of them for a moment. There was a scraggly mop of gray hair on its head.

Leon and Chris both realized at the same time that the wolf and the bizarre creature were sizing each other up.

 _That's sad,_ Leon thought. _We're not even considered dangerous to them._

He reached out and grabbed Claire's arm and began pulling her backwards with him. Nudging Chris as he edged by. Chris began to move with him.

"Let's just assume this is like Raccoon City all over again and expect the unexpected," Leon whispered as they hit a tree.

Suddenly Leon's foot trod on something that felt like metal. His boot clanged against it and he glanced down in surprise. _Lab Emergency Exit_ , was etched into the circular cover.

In front of them, the wolf leapt at the creature's torso, with a flash of claws the wolf's sides were shredded. This didn't bother the wolf at all as arms sprouted from its sides immediately.

"Always go for the head," Leon muttered to himself as he watched them. The creature's face snapped towards him and Leon suddenly wondered if it had understood him. It moved faster than a licker, a creature that a school teacher used to save him in the Easter Slav Republic.

The black eyes narrowed on the wolf again and this time with the now many armed creature leapt at it, it brought its claws down on top of the wolf's neck. The head severed and the body immediately dropped. It began to dissolve immediately.

By this time Chris had gotten the panel open and pushed Claire onto the ladder.

"Go," he said and climbed down after Claire turning to Leon. "Come on!"

Leon never made it to the ladder. The creature was upon him suddenly and hoisted him up against the tree and studied him with those piercing black eyes. "Leon!" Chris yelled, hearing Claire gasp beneath him.

"Go!" Leon said, "Close the lid and just go!" The creature still had him against the tree. The black eyes were going to give him nightmares, he knew. He was going to pass out any second from the lack of air.

He heard the lid clang shut and hoped there was some way to bolt it closed from the inside because at this rate they wouldn't get very far if this thing decided to pursue them.

Suddenly a shot rang out and echoed in the forest and Leon fell to the ground at the base of the tree and the rather large creature dropped on top of him.

"Fuck," he gasped as his vision swam and he pushed at the creature on top of him. It toppled off to his right leaving him covered in blood and gore.

Ada Wong walked into his vision and his first thought was that he was dead. Leon was glad he didn't ask this out loud because the sudden pain of being slammed against the tree made itself known and he groaned.

"Ada?"

He was deliriously happy to see her but it probably had more to do with the fact that he'd been knocked out once and slammed against a tree by something that crawled out Neo-Umbrella's labs. The fact that he was alive was a miracle.

"Hello handsome," She said getting closer.

Naturally Leon did the best thing he could at the moment to let her know how glad he was to see her. He pitched forward and vomited at her feet.


	14. Chapter 15

When the creature did not attack, Birkin smiled. "It worked," he said relief evident in his voice. "We can all go now."

Wesker started forward, the Ustanak coming behind him.

"I've got a better idea," Jake said suddenly pivoting and facing Wesker. "You and me, and maybe big ugly, the rest stay here in the safe room."

"Jake, no…" Sherry said moving forward.

"That's a good idea," Birkin said at the same time. His respect for the young man was starting to grow.

Also the idea that those two wouldn't make it back appealed to him very much. He could tell that Sherry loved him but she was young and would get over his death. At least that was how Birkin attempted to justify the idea in his own mind.

Wesker looked between Birkin and Jake. Sherry's were the only motivations he did not find suspicious,

Jake he knew would act to protect his family. Birkin was possibly after revenge.

"If Birkin can control that creature, he can station it outside the door," He said finally. "We can get into the armory probably better than anyone else here. The baby is just a distraction."

"Spoken like a loving grandfather." Jake snapped moving towards the open door. He felt a hand on his arm.

"Jake don't do this to me." A tear slid down Sherry's cheek and she trembled visibly. .

He turned to face her and grabbed her shoulders in his hands and pulled her to him kissing her and ignoring the other two men in the room. He pulled away. "Sherry, you survive no matter what, do you hear me?"

She only nodded too choked up and not trusting herself to speak. Jake moved over to Anja and glanced down at her. He bent down and planted a kiss on her forehead being careful not to wake her.

Wesker only sighed impatiently and Birkin glanced elsewhere.

Jake turned to Birkin, "don't let anything through that door."

"Of course not." He said feeling pale still. He hoped the plaga that he had taken wouldn't impair him to the point where he wouldn't be able to control the creature outside. It seemed to be their only defense against the other Nemans.

"Let's go then." He glanced at Wesker and strode out the door armed only with his fists. Wesker nodded to Birkin and moved outside closing the door from the outside and keying in the codes to make sure it stayed locked.

The nightmarish creation of Birkin's stood feet away not moving. Jake shuddered visibly remembering the first time he'd been chased by something Neo-Umbrella had dragged out of the pits of hell. The first time he'd caught sight of an Ustanak he wasn't sure what to make of it, but having been battling bio-organic weapons for the past year already he didn't panic. Now an Ustanak was shadowing him out the door, currently on his side.

Jake noticed the big creature seemed just as afraid of the Neman as he was. Jake didn't like his odds against one of those creatures one on one, let alone a whole horde of them. The fact that they had at one time been biologically his half siblings…

And with the luck they'd been having here in the first place, they would probably run into the rest of the Nemans at some point.

"Which way." He stared hard at Wesker who was still studying the Neman.

"That way," he pointed off towards the right. Jake sighed when he didn't move. Dear old Dad, he thought taking the lead.

The hallway was gray and the floor sounded metallic as his boots moved over it. He slowed and took his steps more carefully. He was unarmed here against creatures that could tear him apart without blinking an eye. While Wesker and an Ustanak followed behind.

He laughed, the irony was too much.

"What's funny." Wesker said.

"Nothing at all." Jake responded. Not bothering to turn around. He heard the click of the gun behind him.

"I meant what I said earlier Jake," Wesker was following, making at attempt at silence. Even the Ustanak moved quietly for something as his size. "You really are the most dangerous B.O.W. here."

"Sure whatever," Jake didn't care. He had just left his wife and child in a safe room with the clone of her biological father. Nothing was going to surprise him at this point.

They neared the end of the hallway, even the Ustanak was silent for something its size. The hallway ran into another corridor which ran perpendicular the one they were standing in.

Something skittered in the distance and Jake tensed but remained silent.

"The right." Wesker said behind him.

Jake glancing quickly to the left moved into the right corridor and followed it down. Here if anything showed up they would be sitting ducks. Their best hope was not to attract ANYTHING. He was starting to feel better about leaving Sherry and Anja in the safe room.

The hall started to curve around. The lights also started flickering. "Great, like we didn't have enough problems," he muttered.

The silence was more unnerving than running into a B.O.W. The worst part of a battle was always waiting for it to start, he remembered.

Jake hesitated before continuing down the hallway. Wesker and the Ustanak were behind him. A myriad of uncertainty lay before him.

He realized he was going to have to turn off his feelings for Sherry and Anja before he moved. They were safe for the moment. Worrying about them right now was going to get them all killed. He needed to be just as ruthless as he was when he and Sherry had first met in Edonia. Back when getting them both out wasn't his first priority.

He took a deep breath closed his eyes and opened them again.

"Something wrong, Jake?" Wesker's voice prodded him from behind. Jake really hated this guy. He turned that off too. All Wesker was right now was a means to an end.  
"No." Jake responded and moved forward into the flickering lights. He refused to think of this man behind him as his father, cloned or otherwise.

Everything else faded away as he listened for whatever was in front of him. He knew there was something there. He'd caught a glimpse of something running on all fours. He hoped it was a guard dog. But the odds were against it being uninfected.

He longed for the familiar feel of a glock in his hand, or at least something to do battle with. He scanned the floor for any kind of weapon as he moved forward.  
He spotted a wooden table in front of him. Well that's helpful, he thought. He picked it up and slammed it against the wall. The table shattered leaving him a sharp wooden stick in hand. Better than nothing, he moved forward again.  
The worst part was knowing he was immune to the C-Virus but not knowing if he was immune to the virus Birkin had unleashed. He doubted it given that all his other "siblings" that Wesker had created had turned into Nemans, and were running loose all over the place.

He moved forward keeping his pointed stick out in front of him, against a Neman he doubted it would do much damage but he'd fought against other creatures with less and won. He just had to avoid being scratched.

The scratching sounded again and Jake caught a glimpse of the creature in front of him. It was an infected dog. Its skin torn in places as blood and other biological fluids dripped onto the floor. Wesker and the Ustanak moved behind him.

Jake couldn't believe he was taking point with a stick.

Suddenly the dog leapt at him, startling Jake and he simply reacted by bringing the point up. It hit the point square in the chest let out a shriek and was still. The impact knocked Jake back and dragged the stick out of his hand. Jake reached down and picked it up and brought his boot down hard on the dog's head with a statisfying crunch.

"If only that was the worst thing down here." He muttered.

"If only," Wesker agreed. The Ustanak said nothing.

"Where would the Nemans have gone?" Jake asked without turning around.

"Probably up and out," Wesker responded. "Think about it, they are reasonably intelligent. Escape is probably their first priority."

"Do they remember what they were?" Jake said.

Wesker didn't respond for a moment. "I don't know," he admitted. "A pity if they did." Jake turned around to look at Wesker again. Someday soon he was going to have it out with dear old Dad. He still couldn't believe this man had fathered him at some point.  
At least the original had…and he had to been some sort of insane genius to come up with a back-up plan of this magnitude.  
They stepped around the dead dog and moved forward, the lights continued to flicker, Jake prayed that they wouldn't go out entirely.  
"So," He said quietly as he continued forward. "You going to tell me what else is down here now?"  
"And ruin the surprise?" Wesker's voice was almost condescending.  
"Ah, fuck," Jake snapped. "I hate you."  
"Always cursing, you'll never get far like that."  
The Ustanak grunted behind Jake and Jake took it as a sign that at least the creature was in agreement with him.  
He kept walking forward with his wooden table leg in hand. It wasn't going to help much against the Nemans but it was better than nothing. At least he could take out a few infected dogs and who knew what else was down here. Rats of epic proportions?  
The lights flickered suddenly and above their heads a hatch suddenly popped open. Jake reacted instinctively jumping backwards into Wesker who pulled the gun on him. Jake didn't even give him a second look only staring at the face of Chris Redfield as his face peeked through the opening.  
"Chris?"  
Chris's own surprise took a second longer to register. "Jake! Are you ok? Where's Sherry?" He bombarded Jake with questions as he dropped down.  
And then he took stock and noticed Wesker behind Jake with the Ustanak. No one moved for a moment.  
"Where's Sherry?" Claire's quiet voice came from the hole. Jake glanced up at her.  
"I left her in the safe room with Birkin."

Claire dropped down, no longer surprised at anything. Wesker was here again back from the dead. Why not Birkin too? They had been friends long ago, if Wesker could have been said to have any friends. What did surprise her was seeing Jake moving down a tunnel with Wesker and a creature that Sherry had described to her as the Ustanak. Oddly enough it made no move to attack any of them.  
"Birkin?" Chris on the other hand was quite surprised. "Anyone else you brought back that I should know about."  
Wesker shrugged.  
"Guys there is a weapons cache we're trying to get to here." Jake said before anyone else could come to the wrong conclusion. "I've got a stick."  
Chris swung his glance back at Wesker holding the only hand gun. "You're in front?"  
Jake shrugged. "There's all kinds of creatures here…I've killed a dog but who knows what else is down here."  
"Besides that you mean?" Claire nodded to the Ustanak, who only shrugged.  
Jake nodded. "Look guys, Sherry is alone with a clone of her Dad, I kind of want to get back to her as soon as possible."

"Let's ditch this guy," Chris pointed his own gun at Wesker, his skin crawling to see him up and moving again after watching the original die in a volcano.

This time it was Jake who pulled Chris's gun down. "He knows where the weapons cache is, and I think we are going to have to do a whole lot of fighting to get out of here." Jake glanced around suddenly. "Hell you guys didn't think to bring Leon with you?"

Both Chris and Claire suddenly looked down. Jake caught their meaning. "No…"

"We didn't see him die," Chris said putting a hand on Jake's shoulder watching as Jake's fists balled up.  
"It was a huge creature, black eyes, dark skin…it moved so fast." Chris remembered Leon standing between them telling them to run. He shuddered visibly.

"Well this is all touching but the Nemans aren't the only dangerous creatures down here." Wesker's irritating voice cut in. Jake's fists got even tighter, both Chris and Claire visibly tensed. "Besides I'm sure the Redfields will be of some use, they are always finding ways to ruin a cog or two in my plans."

Chris pulled out a glock and handed it to Jake. "Here...don't waste the ammo. Keep the stick too."

Jake nodded. He still couldn't believe Leon was dead. The man had more lives than a cat. He wasn't going to believe it until he saw a body. Telling Sherry would crush her. Leon had been more of a father figure to her than Birkin, or her guardian Simmons.

"Hey asshole, which way?" He said without looking at Wesker. He was afraid if he did look at him just seeing his smug expression would cause to lose it.

"Straight forward," Wesker stayed in the back. Jake was definitely starting to hate him.

"So what's down here?" Chris said moving forward.

"I'm not sure yet," Jake said. "That asshole behind me, won't say."

Chris sighed. He wasn't even going to bother asking.


	15. Chapter 16

Leon who was in fact not dead stood next to Ada staring at the creature that Ada had just killed.

"What is that thing?"

"Not sure," Ada was leaning down for a closer examination. She plucked a long white hair off of its head placed it in a plastic bag.

"What are you doing?" Leon moved closer. He would never trust her completely. Now even less so.

Ada told herself it was better this way.

"Can't find out what this is without a sample. Probably started out as a human."

Leon nodded. "Knowing Wesker. Yeah." He groaned as a headache started to come on. Being picked up by a creature that was ten times stronger than you was all in a days work. But that didn't mean that you didn't get hit with a painful headache every now again.

He glanced over at the hole that Chris and Claire had dropped into earlier.

"You got what you need?" He asked not looking at her.

Ada stood up. "Yes."

Leon headed toward the hole. It was as far as he knew the only way in.

"They worth this?" Ada asked from behind him.

Surprised he turned around. "I've done more for people worth less to me."

She nodded and moved to join him. Leon pulled open the door and climbed down the ladder into darkness hoping to meet up with Chris and Claire soon.

Sherry stared across the room at the clone of her father. They had closed and locked the door of the saferoom. The Neman Birkin controlled remained stationed outside the door.

Birkin on the other hand looked sick. Pale and sweating, he coughed frequently.

"What exactly did you do?" Sherry whispered from across the room. She refused to be any closer to him than necessary. She knew he remembered her as a little girl, but to Sherry he looked exactly as her father had appeared before mutating into the monster he'd eventually become.

Birkin glanced over at her and shrugged. "I made a decision to take revenge for my family."

"Your family?" Sherry's face turned red. "You murdered your wife and if it hadn't been for Leon and Claire, I'd be dead too…or worse. Just like you."

"Tell me what happened." Birkin sat and glanced at her.

Sherry stared at him for a moment and then started. "Your work was taken, probably in the same way YOU TOOK it."

Birkin winced. He and Wesker had stolen the original work from their colleague Marcus.

"But you mutated into this monster, you weren't even recognizable as a human." She shuddered visibly and looked away for a moment. Anja was still seeping peacefully.

"And you killed Mom when she tried to stop you. You injected me with the virus."

Birkin was silent. "The virus didn't mutate you?"

"I received the vaccine in time."

"But you have abilities now."

"Healing," Sherry was cautious now. "It hasn't exactly let me live a normal life. I've been a ward of the government, and now I'm their operative. They are exactly going to let me go and disappear."

"No," said Birkin sadly. "I'm sorry Sherry. I didn't know…"

"Stop," Sherry held up her hand. "You are not my father. You may share his DNA, but that's it."

Jake stared into the flickering darkness in front of Chris. They'd all frozen at the sound of nails on the concrete walls. A scraping had come from up ahead. The tunnel curved from here. Jake reminded himself to kick someone's ass for that.

Jake moved up next to Chris pulling the glock out and stilling his breathing. He could hear better than any of them, with the exception of Wesker and possibly the Ustanak. His ears had picked up the sounds of breathing that were almost too quiet for him to pick up. He put a restraining hand on Chris's arm when the other man started forward. Whatever was over there was waiting for them to come around the curve.

He put up one finger in his left hand Chris nodded. Jake couldn't make out any more details.

Jake started forward but Chris laid a restraining hand on him this time. Jake lifted an eyebrow at Chris reached over and pulled the knife out of his vest. He flipped it in his hand and jabbed it into the top of hand and held his hand up in front of Chris.

Chris's eyes widened at the sight of Jake's hand healing instantly. He shrugged and allowed Jake to take the lead this time. Jake only rolled his eyes as he moved forward again. When he tried to hand the knife back Chris gestured for him to keep it.

Claire followed behind them casting glances back at Wesker and the Ustanak. This was the 2nd of the creatures they'd encountered. But it was not attacking them for the moment. Claire kept her handgun out in front of her not sure if she should be pointing it behind her or in front.

Wesker for his part was completely calm, wearing the same placid look he followed with his pet Ustanak in the rear. He moved quietly but he appeared to be what he was. A scientist observing the results of his tests.

Jake listened to the silence and made the decision to just move forward and get it over with. No use in waiting, he thought. He put one foot in front of the other slowly moving forward. The anticipation was killing him. Not that he wanted to know what was in front of him, but that it was a complete unknown. They could all be dead in the next ten minutes or less.

You are the most dangerous B.O.W. here. Wesker's voice floated into his mind. For once he hoped Wesker was right. He desperately wanted to get out of this alive.


	16. Chapter 17

"Fuck." Jake moved forward again. He was aware of Wesker behind him.

The guy was always calm.

Almost as if he was observing a science experiment from afar and there was no way he was going to get hurt.

Jake paused, his shoulders stiffened at the thought.

 _Seriously?_

Was it possible that Wesker had this whole scenario planned out. It did not seem likely.

From what had happened so far.

Birkin had betrayed him.

The facility was under siege from the creatures that Birkin had unwittingly created against Wesker's will.

Birkin was in control of one of them.

 _…and yet._

There was no panic. It was as if the man wasn't even human. He remained in control at the same time as it seemed he was not in control of anything.

What happened to the boy they rescued?

The adult clone that had just died.

He had just left Sherry alone with her father, who in theory was the enemy of Wesker.

The enemy of my enemy supposedly is my friend.

Chris and Claire showing up.

Leon was dead. Maybe….Jake still couldn't believe it.

Was this really an experiment after all?

Was Sherry involved? He dismissed the last thought entirely. No matter what had happened Sherry was just as much of a victim of their parents as he was. They had played with her genetics just as much as they had played with his.

The fact that they had had a child together was a bonus. The only unexpected thing they had done so far was find each other.

Jake slowly rounded the corner.

He felt a searing pain in his gut before he saw the cause.

The Neman jabbed him through with a broken chair leg. Ironic as he was also carrying one

A gurgling sound came out of him. He felt his body lifting up into the air as the creature in front of him speared him through. The clawed hand had a wood chair leg stabbed through him. For a moment he felt a brief stab of sympathy for the infected guard dog he killed earlier.

Only briefly.

Time slowed as he briefly locked eyes with the creature that had once been a test tube half sibling. The liquid black eyes showed no emotion human or otherwise as he was launched over the Neman.

Then he forgot about it entirely as he felt his body leave the makeshift spear and fly through the air. He hit the wall behind the Neman, his breathe knocked out of him. His vision blackened as he fought to stay conscious.

"Gahhh," he gasped. The Neman had already turned its back on him. Any normal person would have been dead by now.

Anyone else would be.

He lay stunned for a moment, gasping and staring at his mid-section. Blood had been pouring out of it but that had slowed to a trickle. The skin knit over the inner wound and Jake barely suppressed the urge to scream. Healing was great but it still hurt like a bitch.

He glanced up in time to see both Redfields firing shots at the Neman. They obviously stung the creature but did not slow it down much. It was locked arm to arm with the Ustanak. Black liquid leached out of the Neman in several places.

As the pain in his gut left him Jake smiled ruefully and lifted his gun and fired.

Sherry hid her emotions from Birkin. She turned her back on him and went over and sat next to Anja. The infant gurgled happily raised her tiny hands in the air at her mother, completely oblivious to the deadly chaos outside their door.

She smiled down at Anja.

"Does she have any abilities?" Birkin stood near the door. It felt better to be in close proximity to the creature outside. Not that he'd left the door open. He still wanted the barrier. He knew the creature hated him. It didn't take a rocket scientist to figure it out. But for now it was fully under his command.

Birkin couldn't believe how much had occurred since he had been away. Being away was how he chose to think about his death. His family being gone notwithstanding but the technological advancements Umbrella had come up with in the past few years was amazing.

His own daughter's healing…he had skipped past the rest of her story and was completely focused on her abilities.

Sherry frowned. "I'm not sure." Sherry moved to place herself between Birkin and Anja. "But you're the last person I want to find out."

"I'm not going to hurt her." Birkin looked mortified. "I was just curious to see if the ability carried down the genetic line."

"Funny," Sherry faced him hands on hips, anger in her voice. "That's just what your friend Wesker said to me when he found out I was pregnant the first time. Jake's right. Our parents were fucked up."

Birkin's face turned red. "You know there is a chance they won't return."

"Don't say that."

"Sher—"

"Don't fucking say that!" Sherry turned her back on Birkin again. _Oh God let him come back, Jake please come back,_ she prayed to herself. She knew it was true. She thought she could stand being in here with the clone of her father, but the truth was Anja was the only person keeping her sane right now. Seeing her father's face was driving her crazy. For the first time in her life Sherry was ready to commit murder.

But a nagging voice in the back of her head told her he might be right. They might have to claw their way out of here on their own. She, with her healing abilities might actually have a shot at it. Jake should too.

Thinking about him gave her pause. She turned back to Birkin.

"What did you know before you knew who I was?"

Birkin looked at Sherry surprised. "What do you mean?"

"What did Wesker tell you?"

"He told me both of you died, it was the company's fault."

"And?"

"I had planned on taking revenge…"

"What stopped you?"

"Nothing stopped me. I found out you were alive. Wesker lied about some things. I want revenge on him for lying about that part…not letting me know you were alive. Letting his son marry you."

Sherry crossed her arms as she studied the clone of her father.

"There really is no "letting us" do anything." She finally spoke in a soft whisper. "Jake and I found each other without Wesker's help. Jake never knew Wesker was his father until I found him. Every decision we've made, we've done on our own. Without either of you."

"But—"

"And it's going to stay that way."

"Sherry, I know this is hard…but Wesker was my friend. And he lied to me…"

"So?"

"So its entirely possible Jake lied to you. Think about it. Just to cross the DNA between the two of you in the easiest way possible…"

"That's not exactly how Wesker operates," Sherry threw her hands up into the air, exasperated. "Jake is NOT his father."

"You don't know that."

"Actually I do." Sherry turned away from Birkin again. This was the second time they had this argument. "No offense but the time to have this sudden interest in my welfare would have been years ago. Not now."

"Better late than never."

"NO," Sherry snapped. "But you are right about one thing. If they take too long, we may have to go on without them. I promised Jake I would stay alive and get Anja out."

Birkin breathed a sigh of relief. He had half thought he would have to knock Sherry out to get her to leave Jake behind. But she might just do it on her own, to protect their daughter. There was always a chance he wouldn't come back. Even better and he wouldn't have to do anything about it.

Leon jumped into the hallway that twenty minutes before Chris and Claire had dropped out of. Ada dropped behind him silently. They turned around in a circle listening but hearing nothing but the buzzing of the flickering lights.

Leon sighed. Always bad lighting. "Wonder if this will be the next Raccoon City," he whispered out loud.

Ada shuddered inwardly, but out loud she replied with. "I'd rather not think about it. I'm pretty sure everyone you care about is in here."

Leon didn't reply. He wasn't sure of which way to go and his head still hurt.

He started forward without saying anything after a moment's hesitation Ada followed him.

"You working this time?"

"What's it to you?" Ada moved silently behind him.

"I don't normally see you this involved unless there's a job in the middle of it."

Ada shrugged behind him. "I don't know what you mean."

Leon kept moving forward. He would have liked nothing better than to have a conversation with this woman when she wasn't being mysterious. She was generally one step ahead of him. Worse he didn't exactly know who she was working for.

"If I asked you what you were after this time around would you tell me?"

"Who says I'm after anything this time?"

"Nevermind." Leon fell silent again, moving forward.

The lights kept flickering.


	17. Chapter 18

"They will never accept you as one of them."

The voice was so low that Jake barely heard it. He was standing with Chris and Claire in front of him with Wesker and the Ustanak behind him. Unconsciously he had wedged himself between them.

"How far is this weapons cache?" He replied back. Chris looked up from the front. Honestly they didn't know where they were going. Jake hated the idea of heading out not knowing whether or not he could trust Wesker to get them to whatever weapons cache he was talking about.

Worse he could have been playing them the whole time and Jake fell for it hook, line, and sinker.

"It's close." Wesker replied rolling his eyes and looking back towards the Ustanak.

Jake could never get over how calm Wesker always seemed. He flicked his eyes back up to Chris who was watching him. Chris shook his head, silently agreeing that Wesker was an asshole.

They had been walking through hallways for hours it seemed, killing a few monsters here and there, dropping a few zombies. Jake had no idea this facility extended so far. Chris did not seem surprised.

They were taking a break. Chris who was on supposedly on vacation handed a water canteen to Claire and then to Jake.

"Things ever go like this before?" Jake asked him out loud before Wesker could start talking to him again.

"Yeah," Chris said, "especially with him."

Jake nodded. His back was to the wall and he closed his eyes picturing Sherry for a moment. He felt guilty about leaving her with the clone of her father but his real worry was that this was all a show and he had played right into Wesker's hands.

He hated how fucking calm the guy was.

"How big is this place?" The question was directed at Chris but it was Wesker who answered.

"The original facility expanded far underground beneath Raccoon City. We had accesses that led into the mountains, to the mansion, everywhere. There were plenty of escape routes. Initially the project was huge. There were plenty of no go zones, even I wasn't aware of the size and scope of the facility that Spencer had planned. I've tapped into it, Umbrella or whatever they want to be called now, they're everywhere."

Jake turned to stare at Wesker. "And you joined them?"

"Joined them?" Wesker laughed, the scorn apparent in his voice. "Joined is such a strong word…I came from them. They made me…"

"You were a test tube baby." Jake finished.

"In a manner of speaking." Wesker looked away.

"What happened to the original owners."

In answer Wesker smiled and said nothing. Jake turned away, not really faulting the guy for killing anyone involved with Umbrella. The organization itself was still fairly far and remote but the connections to himself were falling into place. They made Jake feel uncomfortable.

"Hey," Chris put a hand on his shoulder. "We should get moving, this place is huge. Honestly I'd rather head back to Sherry and take our chances together getting out then to keep going deeper into this place."

"I thought they bombed this place into oblivion." Claire muttered, simultaneously pushing herself to her feet.

"The surface was completely destroyed." Wesker responded. "But the Underground facility runs pretty deep. It would be impossible to destroy completely with surface bombs."

"So what do you suggest?" Jake asked.

Wesker hesitated. "I would suggest not going too deep."

This time everyone's eyes were on him and he looked uncomfortable.

"What's down there." Chris demanded.

"Other projects, projects that should remain buried." Wesker paused. "An AI that is worse than any BOW ever spewed out. You don't want her getting to the surface."

"Her?"

Wesker focused on Jake now. "You think that biology is the only department Umbrella worked on? What if you could copy the mind and load it into the hard drive of a sophisticated system? What if they copied the mind of someone truly terrifying and loaded it into the system as a guard."

"At this point nothing would surprise me." Chris mutterd.

"Jesus." Claire said at the same time.

"So, no I wouldn't recommend going too deep. Umbrella lost control of that… technology. Safety protocols disconnected it from the surface."

"Who was the her?" Chris demanded suddenly. He had a nagging suspicion, someone they had encountered before…he didn't even want to consider it.

Wesker stared at him, his lips quirked at the corner before he answered. "Yes…Alexia."


End file.
